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A world where everyone is a sentient and sapient Cell. A society whose morality has been eroded... Welcome to Spatium Sperma.", "count": "4", "submission_left_submission_id": "3655675", "submission_left_file_name": "5626661_Uros_spatium_sperma_synopsis.doc", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5626/5626661_Uros_spatium_sperma_synopsis.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5626/5626661_Uros_spatium_sperma_synopsis.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5626/5626661_Uros_spatium_sperma_synopsis.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "211", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "141", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "85", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "The backstory of Spatium Sperma. A long document that condenses just what the hell happened before humanity came to inhabit a massive space monster.\n\nGrab yourself something to drink or eat, because this one will take you some time.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "The backstory of Spatium Sperma. A long document that condenses just what the hell happened before humanity came to inhabit a massive space monster.

Grab yourself something to drink or eat, because this one will take you some time.", "writing": "[center][u][b]Backstory, or ‘What Came Before’[/b][/u][/center]\n\nWelcome, travelers. You may have come to hear of a particular story, one that begins ten years after everything is over. But to understand how we got there and why, one must start from the beginning.\n\nSo let me first tell you of the age known as ‘What Came Before’. A long story for most, but the prize of knowledge is, if nothing else, time.\n\nThis universe, or at least the Milky Way, changed in the year 2058: The year of ‘revelations’, as it was called.\n\nFor humanity this year was a wakeup call that many did not take well. It was not a willing one, for governments all over Earth had done much to impede it, for good reason, despite the many self-serving desires behind many of those actions. Discovering the truth too soon would have doomed everything, even doing so at the right time was incredibly painful. And the cost of keeping it contained? Lives, countless of them.\n\nWars had started to hide this fact.\n\nSuffering was artificially spread to impede its discovery.\n\nIllnesses, death and ignorance was enforced in societies close to a true enlightenment.\n\nWhy?\n\nBecause what humans call the ‘void of space’, what we think is ‘dead’, is, in fact, very much alive.\n\nAnd it was trying to eat us.\n\nIt did not matter what came before, because from the early 2040s to the late 2050s, no matter who was in power, nor where it was, death and misery accompanied the world. It was a horrible, oppressive picture where materials, food and simple comforts were all but taken away from the populace. Many thought every world power was doing this out of their own selfish desires, that politicians, kings and despots all were in accordance. It is as if the old tales of the rich and the powerful seeing those beneath them as insects were no longer stereotypes and exaggerations from those angry and in lesser positions, and instead true. The ones in power were making everyone miserable, denying them basic care and even worse. It was as if they were trying to return almost everyone to the middle ages, or worse.\n\nThe truth was, if possible, even worse. Was it even more selfish than initially thought? No, on the contrary, though it did not mean no one had done this for their own gain. In fact there were many that took advantage of this misery to line their own pockets. But, much as many would have wanted to call them monsters, there was a good reason for this cruelty.\n\nIt was a sad tale, one with reason to exist… but having reasons for doing this or doing that does not mean it all can be forgiven. And this? This all had tens of thousands, MILLIONS, dying. Some took their own life, many more died from neglect, wars and other means.\n\nYet all had a reason to be, and future generations would understand.\n\nThey would also come to regret the hastiness of human nature and their desire for retribution.\n\nNot like it mattered to the victims, to the present lives impacted by it all, to those that would not live to see the repercussions of their actions. There was no pleading when the time came, though, not from those that did it with no real malice. Even then, all of them, from the most noble, albeit cruel, to the most rotten and willing person in power, had a proper ending.\n\nIt was a lesson: Pain can sometimes lessen, but not all pain can be forgiven.\n\nAnd we all know, no matter what the ‘virtuous’ say, that forgiveness is hardly a natural word in the human vocabulary.\n\nOf those who acted and brought justice? Some did it out of grief, loss and pure rage. Others were so broken that they just went along with whatever was asked of them. A good number just wanted an escapegoat, while others saw retribution as just, no matter the outcome of the actions of those that had starved the world with the intent to bring hope in the future at the cost of their own souls.\n\nWhat about the guilty? Many, most of them in fact, did what they did knowing they, and likely those close to them, would one day be erased in one way or another, but with full knowledge that doing ‘good’ in the moment would spell doom in the future, not just for them, but for everyone. Others wanted outright power now, and they hoped things would not escalate until they were out of the picture. If they did ‘good’? Fine. If not? Just as well.\n\nIn the end it hardly mattered if you had suffered or if you were those in control of it all. The many doubts and apprehensions of what would happen when everything was revealed, when everything stopped being ‘what ifs’ and instead turned into reality.\n\nFear.\n\nChaos.\n\nRiots.\n\nEven more death.\n\nAnd yet, the year 2058 marked the Year 1 of the Galactic Era. It marked the day when the limit of patience had been found and when an explanation could not be pushed back any longer. Civil unrest was about to explode, and with it would come full ruin, no matter who ‘won’. Thus, a decision was made.\n\nThe day the 2058 hit, they came. Aliens. Or, at the very least, their robotic proxies.\n\n‘Vigiles’, or so they were named; a translation of the name given to automated bodies and recon craft designed by species outside of the Milky Way. For countless eons they had watched over the Milky Way and all life it had grown. Many times they had tried to help directly, while other instances had them wait as the collective just watched. In the beginning they made incredible mistakes, cutting down any chances of survival. Incredible advancements meant little when a situation was new and experience was scarce. And after they learned? The many species that created these automatons did their best to lend aid or, at the very least, they tried to learn.\n\nSuccess was… sparse. And that was being generous.\n\nBut success with what? Simple: Escaping the Milky Way.\n\nEscaping? The message, sent all over the world, made humanity wonder. Why would they need to escape? The answer came, and it was shocking: Because something was about to devour it again, as it had done so many times the Vigiles’ masters could simply not count them.\n\nThe revelation they brought was swift and the furthest it could be from sweet: All humanity knew was, in a way, fabricated. Either by the government with aid from the Vigiles themselves, or a perfect fabrication by the aliens alone. There were truths in what humanity knew, yes, but in the end it was a story, one of many, made to keep any species, like Humans, from discovering the truth and forcing one of the two more common outcomes that took place once the truth and their predicaments were made obvious.\n\nOne of said outcomes was simple, if final and gruesome: Self-destruction. The revelation easily made many go mad, and many others suffered permanently afterwards as they found out just how small they truly were. Self deletion of the whole species did not take place, with humanity that is, but a good number of sapient and very intelligent species had opted for the easy way out. In some cases this had meant the literal destruction of their whole world, sometimes even their whole star system if they had the technology and inclination for such a final solution.\n\nComparatively, the alternative ending, the ‘neutral’ one, was more gruesome. The second possibility was that humanity would either ignore the warning, or think they could survive what was out there. Ludicrous. Why? Because there was a massive, galaxy wide entity that was about to devour the Milky Way. It wouldn’t be soon, it wouldn’t be the first time, but it would happen, as it had done so many times before. To this thing humanity was but a snack, and knowing that a whole species, that billions [possible trillions, if humanity expanded after the revelation] of souls would just turn out to mean an afternoon snack for a beast of indescribable size, could easily invoke dread or a berserker push ahead to try and fight it while ignoring the Vigiles for their perceived treachery. This, in turn, would simply mean the whole species would be devoured.\n\nOf course there was the third option of accepting the Vigiles’ word and their help. That said, it was never a clean process een when that happened. There was too much hurt and mistrust, simply because the Vigiles needed the species to be ignorant for as long as possible. And the pain forced upon humanity for so long? Their doing, for humanity’s own good.\n\nTo put it kindly: The news wasn't taken well.\n\nA literal galaxy devouring entity? That just *barely* any knowledge of the galaxy, surface level as it was, was false? Oh, that was PERFECT. But it got worse: Learning that aliens had indeed been visiting Earth regularly and had aided in guiding the many conflicts, more so in modern times, to push back knowledge and hoard resources? Just the best news, you know? So of course it all went as expected. After all, before all of this was revealed? Earth had turned into a powder keg. But with this information and confirmation of all this suffering being created, being guided, that it was ON PURPOSE? It made that powder keg catch fire. And what does a powderkeg do when on fire?\n\nExplode.\n\nHumanity was not unique in this. Many, in fact MOST, species would react in anger. It was a sad reality, just like what the Vigiles needed to do to keep any nascent species from self-destructing, but it was still a reality that had to be accepted.\n\nAnd yes, humanity DID explode in rage.\n\nThis was, as said, expected. Yet, as violence threatened to spread the Vigiles did not leave, they watched. The species behind those ancient, soulless automatons, forced themselves to do as they had done since they undertook this task: They watched the result of their actions and engraved the suffering into their minds. There was no reward for this task, only scorn and suffering. They had warned those in power of what could happen, what *HAD* happened in many cases before. That this sacrifice would start and would end up with bloodseed.\n\nThere was no happy ending for anyone that day. There could have been nothing other than a short lived madness and rivers of blood.\n\nIt was always the same. And there was always a reason for it. This brutality, this massacre, this punishment, insanity. All of it made the species the Vigiles were trying to help spend their energy with those they thought had wronged them, instead of in self destruction or quick attempts at creating some failure of an escape plan.\n\nDoes the idea disgust you? It disgusted the Vigiles. It revolted them. But so many times they had tried to do this ‘perfectly’; to help species without binding them through lies, manipulations and pain. The result: It *NEVER* worked. Without any suffering, without such hardships, the species that came before would be unable to take this danger seriously, nor accept the many sacrifices that would be required. Blood, tears, anger and undying determination were needed.\n\nDespite this all, despite knowing it was necessary, not all aliens behind the Vigiles could stomach it. Many left, but the majority remained. They were used to this cycle, yes, but being ‘used’ to it didn’t mean it was easy. The Vigiles always stopped it before blood could form a sea of blood, even if there were always casualties. In fact, in their hope, the Vigiles always wished for the species they cared for to regain control before ANY blood was spilled, but that was… rare.\n\nIn fact it was painfully rare, and sometimes even worse. Preparation, a chance at success, almost always came with a price tag attached, and blood was not cheap. And if violence didn’t take the reins for at least a moment? It usually meant a ticking time bomb was hidden somewhere.\n\nNo, disgusting and unnecessary as it felt, the anger had to be spent. By now the Vigiles knew when to stop it, but it had to take place.\n\nFailure was a common word within the alien group. It always felt as if they had messed up, no matter how many times they did this. And yet, whether they considered they had failed again, or that they were doing their best, the Vigiles tried to help. Experience was plentiful, sad as it was, and resignation when words did not work went hand in hand with patience. Once sanity reigned again, once humanity demanded ALL they could give, the Vigiles did. Humanity deserved nothing less, and in fact much more.\n\nHorrible as their manipulation was, the Vigiles had a very good reason. The entity, the creature they had come to call the ‘Predator’, had a cycle, a ‘feeding frenzy’ timer, so to speak. Until it began, the entity would sleep, or at least pay little attention to the comings and goings within its domain. But once it started? It would not rest until the galaxy was barren again, at least for a time.\n\nThe creature had certain needs, thus it had a pattern. It waits, ‘sleeps’, for a long, long time as a galaxy matures, preferably until truly intelligent life develops. Then the entity ‘wakes’, just enough to follow the species’ development, and allows for this life to expand, consume and refine materials. Once this reaches a point it deems acceptable? The entity truly stirs and, after a time, it engulfs the galaxy, devours all organic materials and advanced compounds, then leaves behind its ‘refuse’; simple materials in abundance, both mineral and biological. A simple process that kept the monster fed as if it farmed crops and cattle, but on a galactic scale.\n\nBut what did it mean for humanity? Simple: The species had been getting closer and closer to the point of awakening the monster for decades. Had their leaders not implemented draconic measures, someone would have crossed the line. If humanity had been allowed to mature at a normal pace? Then their time would already be ticking or, at worst, the monster would’ve seen them to be ‘unfulfilling’ and decided to feast early to sate its needs as best as it could.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ was patient after all, more so when compared to humans, but that patience was not eternal. And when hunger gnaws at you, patience dies.\n\nThe monster waits for life to grow, eats, then seeds everything again. However, as cycles of this feeding go by, its hunger grows. Time and time again it speeds the process, allowing for less of the galaxy to recover. It was, over time, draining the life of the galaxy as a whole and making the ‘Predator’ see less and less species as ‘worthy’ of taking its time if they made a single misstep once it became attentive.\n\nThis monster was a virus. A parasite. The galaxy? The Milky Way? It was just a cell inside a living body. The universe? Said body: A lifeform so large that the Milky Way was microscopic in scale, just as a blood cell would be for a human.\n\nHumanity and every alien living within this universe were little more than guests in a massive body that had a cycle that couldn’t be broken. And that monster eating it all? Just part of said constant cycle. By all intents and purposes the Vigiles, a conglomeration of species so advanced that humanity was nothing but a child in comparison, could do absolutely nothing to even harm the ‘Predator’, so strong was its presence in this universal cycle.\n\nAnd while the cycle couldn’t be broken, it could be altered.\n\nThe time it took for the ‘Predator’ to act was always shrinking, yes. The creature did not leave enough to consider the ‘transaction’ a 1:1 exchange, it never did and it never would. Every time it fed, the Milky Way grew smaller. Every time it retreated to rest, it left less materials in every world. And every time it reset, its hunger became more voracious as the ‘Predator’ grew in size. It all fed this vicious cycle. That much humanity had been told.\n\nAnd, again, the Vigiles reiterated one particular point: One day the ‘Predator’ would consume it all.\n\nOne day it would leave with all it had devoured, to find a new home… Or perhaps a different entity would take it down before the galaxy died. There were thousands, millions, of possibilities. Yet none of them had humanity, or even the Vigiles, being the cause of the monster’s demise or decision to move away. That was one thing they could not alter at all.\n\nBut that was immaterial. What the Vigiles wanted humanity to understand was one simple, humble, grotesque truth: The human species would not be its last prey. In fact they could be no prey at all, if they managed to escape its clutches.\n\nChances were minimal, and they grew even more dire every time the ‘Predator’ fed. But survival WAS guaranteed, within a margin that is. The Vigiles made it clear that yes: Humanity could create means to escape, but they needed to be ‘quick’, within galactic standards that is. That was the best outcome, yet there was another.\n\nThey could fail this escape and the entity would still ‘allow them to serve it’.\n\nHumanity as a whole did not like this, no other species had. The Vigiles understood, thus focusing first on the better outcome, although they WOULD share the alternative. Again, humanity deserved this much, even if they did not want to hear it all.\n\nFirst, a clarification: To speed up the process of escape, or at least the chance for it, humanity had been made to suffer. Earth’s resources had been gathered, hoarded, then used to perfect certain technologies meant to give them all a chance. Although the means had been unscrupulous at best, this had been a tried and true way with many species that evolved like humans did: Social, but individualistic, hard to control, manage and guide, but also laser focused when enough pressure is applied.\n\nSimply put? Humanity needed a big enough stick to be threatened with, then a juicy carrot that would not make them forget, just push them in the right direction. Again, a method that humanity was not the sole recipient of, and one the Vigiles quickly admitted to hate, but, as it turned out, it was one of the most used because most species that evolved shared far too many similarities. There were indeed uniqueness to each species, and some were so alien that few others could understand them, but individuality was, by and large, one of the most common factors in many species which, in turn, meant that many of them would not take guidance without brute forcing it.\n\nThat sordid bit of trivia shared, the Vigiles told humanity that the point where the ‘Predator’ became ‘active’ was when one particular technology was put to use by any advanced species: Terraforming. This technology meant the species would mine, exploit and refine any and all worlds it could get. That, in essence, was what the ‘Predator’ wanted and expected, and the lack of it, or the lack of its implementation, would make the entity act earlier.\n\nIt was, as the Vigiles called it, its dinner bell, one way or another.\n\nGovernments and nations all over the world had been developing, perfecting and protecting this technology since the late XX century. But unlike what many movies and books tell you, such developments are time consuming and resource intensive. You cannot have them with the snap of your fingers and make them ready because ‘it has to be’. No, it took decades of suffering for it to become a real thing and, as it turns out, even advanced species like those of the Vigiles admitted that some planets could take far too long to be terraformed, no matter how refined the means were.\n\nThey had made the world bleed and suffer to keep humanity from truly reaching the stars. Why? Because once it was done, once they began turning a different plane into an habitable one, the dinner bell rang at last. And it was this first step, this first expansion, that was crucial because, as soon as that bell echoed across the stars, it would NEVER stop, not until the ‘Predator’ had its fill.\n\nSo now humanity had to be fast and decisive, they had to pick their targets, stick to them and bleed for every next step. The involvement of the Vigiles could be a trigger itself, that is why they employed such scummy tactics and tried to limit their involvement. With their presence revealed, time was now of the essence. Now there were two possibilities: Either the Vigiles’ appearance would rouse the beast, or humanity’s desire to touch the stars, either through their need for it or simple lust for what lied beyond, would finally alert the monster. Both meant that time was now ticking, and it hardly mattered which one had done it.\n\nHowever, before humanity united in action, an unasked question was answered: Why didn’t the Vigiles send ‘proper’ help? Or even get them out? This was asked with anger, disgust and, in some cases, regret as the blood began to dry on Earth. But it was a valid question all the same. After all, the Vigiles had, in the end, shown themselves.\n\nThe answer, it turns out, was not exactly as simple as ‘We didn’t want to’ or ‘We couldn’t’.\n\nBecause the ‘Predator’, while it was the equivalent of a virus, at least when compared to the Universal Entity it parasitized, it was also monstrously big, ancient beyond measure and cunning to the point of easily thwarting whole galaxies’ worth of plans. Not only that: Traveling between the stars was done through two means. The first was known as Hyper Space Folding (Or just Folding), while the later was ‘Dimensional Jumping’.\n\nFolding was used within galactic bodies, and usually between specific rifts in space away from most gravitational fields such as planets or suns. These Hyperspace Lanes connected solar systems and could number between one to one dozen inside a singular system. Convenient and safe, the ‘Predator’ had no control over them. But, at the same time, these Hyperspace Lanes could not form in a ‘weightless’ area, thus dead space, with no stars or planets. That meant that Folding could not join two galaxies together: The space was just too great, its usage limited. Being the ‘safest’ of the two methods also meant it had far too many limitations.\n\nEven then, if desperate enough to jump between galaxies, trying such a traversing method could not form an exit point, instead dispersing the jumper across millions of lightyears of nothingness as the ‘tunnel’ they traveled through crushed them in uncontrollable ways, spitting them out every which way. As such, while they never appeared close to these celestial bodies, the lanes NEEDED said bodies to exist and ‘deliver’ anyone traveling through them safely. It was no lie to say that, the day the galaxy ended, so too would the hyperspace lanes, marking the complete and true end of the Milky Way.\n\nIn other words? Folding was the easy way to travel, but it would not help escape the ‘Predator’s’ hunger. Trying to do so would turn you into space dust at best, if any part of you was ever found.\n\nDimensional Jumps though… Those could help.\n\nAs you may have imagined, considering the Vigiles hadn’t done so to save species before, jumping between dimensions wasn’t easy. Every species had a makeup that had to be considered in many ways; what they ate, what they breathed, how they reproduced, their basic compounds, etc… The slightest miscalculation could create faulty transitions between the space between spaces, and turn what should be a very fast, and relatively ‘simple’ process into a catastrophic cascade failure that would leave traces of the occupants, and sometimes their ship, between dimensional folds.\n\nIt didn’t help that the real body of the ‘Predator’ was nested in one of those dimensional spaces. From an unseen danger to a physical creature that could grab you with a simple thought, any ‘mistake’ that wouldn’t end your life could just as easily make you a noticeable and very attractive prey for the massive monster. Hungering in the space between dimensions, like an unseen, lurking predator, the monster’s ever resting body caught whatever tried to cross that way if it ever sensed new prey, no matter how awake or asleep it was. \n\nIt was this ability, the capability of making something vast, like the space between two galaxies, or the monstrous form of the ‘Predator’, appear small that allowed for the Dimensional Jump to be the only escape. But the very real, and very hungry intelligence of the ‘Predator’, and the many possible combinations of means to use for the drives that would allow for Dimensional Jumps, meant that very complex, advanced, and personal tests would need to be taken would require technology advanced enough to spark the monster’s attention. Not because of its permanent attention itself, but because the creature was intimately familiar with this technology.\n\nAs the Vigiles explained, and as everyone expected, Dimensional jumping took very specific technology. Thanks to its specifications it could be modified in a nearly infinite number of ways to make each one ‘distinct enough’, with a handful of them being specific for every species in existence. The principles were the same every time, that much was true. Their application? Not so much thanks to key differences. However its partial malleability was what offered a chance, and a problem.\n\nThrough its ‘moldability’ there were MANY ways a Jump Engine could be created, yet to make things ‘simple’ all species behind the Vigiles had a very uniform design as the base. A ‘standard’ model, as it were, with easily interchangeable specifics to serve the Vigiles’ many species with a relatively quick refitting process if it was ever necessary to do so. That translated to a nearly ‘universal’ design within the Vigiles’ group, far as the technology was concerned.\n\nHere is the problem with such a thing: That design, and its operation, was known by the ‘Predator’. \n\nWorse than that: With the information the ‘Predator’ had, it could identify almost any standard modification created by the Vigiles’ owners, or get close enough to make any rescue operation dangerous at best and impossible at worst. Every time the Vigiles sent a standard design, they were caught. And if it was another variant of the design that the ‘Predator’ could intercept? It did so, even when what was sent was just another ship full of robotic proxies that it would feel useless, even for nourishment purposes. Thus the Vigiles rarely ever risked discovery any more than they were doing now by using customized, non organic friendly Jump Engines that would NOT support any life form aboard the ship. Such models seemed to be ‘undetectable’, as the ships were cleared of anything organic beforehand and were only caught by accident.\n\nIn fact, some of the earlier attempts that turned into catastrophic failures had many of the Vigiles’ ships eaten by the ‘Predator’. When the Vigiles first found out about the truth of the universe, how it was alive, how it was hungry, how it was infested. Back then the collective of species was much smaller and much more daring. They tried to help as if it was their divine right: To uplift as many species, to guide them, to become GODS. There was less unity and a lot of friction between all of them, so what was now a united front had once been a disorganized glory rush that did them no favor, much less when they found such a mighty monster taking an interest in their escapades.\n\nBeing taken by the ‘Predator’ was a humbling and brutal experience.\n\nThis gruesome revelation came along with another: the creature was a master of biology and bioengineering. After it had absorbed many of the alien species behind the Vigiles, it had drained their minds and knowledge. It hardly cared about creatures that had advanced enough to fight its control until their last breath, but it was hungry for a level of understanding. This aggressive takeover taught it how to ‘talk’ in ways that ‘simpler’ minds could understand, their needs, their abilities, their… usefulness. In a way this blunder gave every species within the ‘Predator’ a chance, but it also revealed all the creature needed to know about Jump Engines used by ‘lesser’ entities than itself.\n\nIn a way, the ‘Predator’ found this discovery not an annoyance, or a danger for its sustenance, but as possibilities for its own growth.\n\nHungry and greedy for more, it had allowed a few attempts to bring ships and resources, only to attack and devour everything and everyone afterwards when it pleased. After a few attempts at saving new species that had been born in the Milky Way, after thousands of aliens from other galaxies had been taken, the Vigiles finally admitted it to themselves: They were not gods, and this creature could, with a simple thought, end everyone that was within its control. \n\nThis wasn’t just humiliation: This was a humbling experience for a superpower spanning various galaxies that had tried to make it look like it was tougher and mightier than it was. A ‘simple’ cell, a virus, had taken the lives of trillions, perhaps quadrillions, of different sentients during their first foray into its depths. They had played with fire, lost, and then made the fire stronger.\n\nMost would have done very, very dumb things after this. Attempts at revenge. Plots to ‘harm’ the ‘Predator’. Perhaps a way to destroy its food source out of spite.\n\nThe group that would create the Vigiles did nothing of the sort. They knew all of those choices would bring more harm than good, and they had already lost far more than they would ever admit.\n\nInstead, they found purpose. A self inflicted one, but it came to them as a saving grace.\n\nThe Vigiles were formed. All species taking part hardened themselves; they refused to risk more of their own lives and the lives of others, but they knew open attempts to weaken the ‘Predator’ or save others would meet the same fate as the ones before. Slow, painful and heart wrenching as it was, they opted for the one way they could, perhaps, do something: Watch, learn, test and prepare future species to try and attempt their own escape. The Vigiles were machines capable of coming and going, of watching from the sidelines, of guiding and helping. Their cost? Having to see, and even be part of, so many atrocities as were needed to keep civilizations going at a steady pace until they were ready to blitz through the last stages of development.\n\nSuccess was rare, but not impossible.\n\nMore often than not drone ships and Vigiles were lost.\n\nSometimes the plans didn’t work out; the species grew too slow to satisfy the ‘Predator’, sometimes one of the Vigiles went rogue and helped develop too fast, making the ‘Predator’ intervene. A few times, through benevolence and hopes for the best, the Vigiles did as they mentioned: No interference, which meant civilizations usually developed peacefully.\n\nThey died without the ‘Predator’ even thinking of giving them any use beyond ‘food’.\n\nDespite the constant pain all these attempts created, the Vigiles kept at it.\n\nOf course, humanity had seen how they ‘helped’, and this was clearly thrown back to their face: Starvation. Repression. Wars. Sickness. Artificial ways to force populations to lower themselves when too high, as a greater population created many bright minds. Sometimes they even forced population booms for famine, scarcity and xenophobia between groups to explode and take care of the possible problem too.\n\nThe Vigiles were ‘monsters’ to humanity, no matter what opportunities they brought and what help they offered.\n\nCruel, monstrous or what have you, they also hadn’t lied: Humanity came with an expiration date, no matter what they did now.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ had a limit when it came to outside influence. That is why the Vigiles mentioned this late appearance being *perhaps* not enough to arouse the monster’s interest. When ‘help’ became ‘too much help’, the ‘Predator’ ignored its own future safety and hunted down every sapient species in the galaxy. It went so far as to force its senses and hunt the Vigiles’ ships, expending resources in a brutal vendetta. \n\nWhile some would call the ‘Predator’ *JUST* a virus, no matter how big or how ‘smart’ it was, they were mistaken. Such reaction brought knowledge and a further reinforcement of what the monster wanted to state in no uncertain terms: All in the Milky Way is mine.\n\nIt was a smart entity, a creature, a living thing.\n\nAnd it did not care about a game when it was ‘rigged’.\n\nWhether you consider it inhumane to gamble whole galaxies’ worth of life a ‘game’ or something far more heinous, that is inconsequential.\n\nHowever, the ‘Predator’ had ‘morals’. Or perhaps ‘rules’ would be a better word. It had a simple way of doing things.\n\nBe it as food or servants, the ‘Predator’ would adapt everything into its being when it fed. If prey escaped through its own methods? It would learn and become even better. If said prey was smart enough to ALMOST escape? Then the ‘Predator’ considered said prey smart enough to become part of itself.\n\nDo not misunderstand: The ‘Predator’ was not cruel, nor was it nice. The ‘Predator’ just *WAS*. This was a cycle, and whatever it ingested, devoured or adapted, it would not ‘care’ for it. It would rule over its body, over its territory and over the entities it acquired. It would lay rules, duties and even allow dissent and rebellion, but ultimately all within itself served the ‘Predator’. And if you did not serve enough? Becoming nutrients was always an option.\n\nWhether it was evil, a form of playing ‘god’, or just its own, indecipherable, way of doing things, was unknown.\n\nMost just accepted that this *WAS*, and that is all there was to it.\n\nAll the Vigiles could do was to tell humanity of what they knew. Whether humanity thought it fair, cruel, or something else, was completely inconsequential. Facts were facts, and the facts were simple: The Vigiles had done all they could to offer humanity a chance, just as they had done with countless others before. Blood soaked and cruelly delivered or not, it was all they could do without outright sentencing them to either slavery or death. They offered a chance, and chances did not come cheap anywhere in the universe.\n\nWith all that delivered, the Vigiles allowed humanity a simple thing: They had a year of deliberation.\n\nMany things were said after that ‘gesture’. But what could be done? Time was precious beyond belief, and a year to mourn the dead, diggest their own actions and ponder what the species as a whole would do, was far more than they probably could afford. Every second alive now was borrowed time that would come back with interest piled on, and even knowing this much was true did nothing to quell many protests and an unending flood of anger mixed with resignation.\n\nAbove all else, this wasn’t up for debate. The Vigiles prompted everyone across the world to direct their energies towards the daunting process that was the singular, most important decision their whole species would ever have to make. They would depart now, and only come back to offer a final push, or put the world to sleep. Whatever they choose, the Vigiles would not interfere more than once.\n\nAfter that? It would depend exclusively on how humanity fared.\n\nBegrudgingly, still angry and with little hope at first, humanity took a long breath. Then, they made a choice. They didn’t have many to pick from, and it wasn’t a unanimous vote, but humanity took one path that day.\n\nStarting from the moment the Vigiles left, the same day of the new year, the same day the Galactic Era began, would be the day of communion. Every nation would converge. The families of the leaders and their allies that brutalized their people, for good or ill, would be left to humanity’s mercies, mercies that would see them live… but not forget. That was trouble for the future, as many dangers and tribulations were left in the NOW and HERE, starting with the simple question of ‘What do we do now?’.\n\nAs a whole, they had decided not to die off. Some were resigned to failure, but many wished to try.\n\nSo this left the one clear option: Take to the stars, focus all their energy on expansion, research and resource accumulation while increasing their numbers and perfecting their bodies. It quickly became obvious that humanity, as it was now, would not be enough. Many old barriers placed for security, REAL security, were demolished within months and many forbidden paths were given a pass. Everything would remain as ethical as possible, but at this point, knowing the galaxy WOULD die, a certain level of moral flexibility was not so much ‘encouraged’ as it was absolutely NEEDED.\n\nThe Vigiles could not fault this line of thought, and they would tell humans as much when they next visited and were informed of the species’ choices. As far as the Vigiles were concerned, it was a simple choice: Better to die free, without pain and fear, than to be devoured by a massive monster. And freedom was, as human history had proven time and time again, something that has a cost.\n\nIn a way almost all humans thought that the Vigiles had done their best, at least once they had time to cool down. Even their world wide euthanasia offer was seen as somewhat… kind. Cold, but kind.\n\nThere were so many projects that were brought to light by those related to the Vigiles’ plan to contain humanity’s natural desire to expand, that it was soon seen just how close many people, even in centuries past, had been to triggering the ‘Predator’s’ interest in them. A premature jumpstart to the monster’s hunger, no doubt, more so considering there were no natural means for humanity to have developed as fast as the creature would have wanted its next ‘feast’ to be. The most generous calculations the leading experts could come up with, after a year of deliberation and data compilation, was this: Humanity would’ve been made part of the ‘Predator’s’ biomass during the late 80s or 90s if the Vigiles hadn’t interfered, and this was a very ‘generous’ time frame.\n\nSo many plans, so many ideas, all of them put on ice because all of them required hundreds upon hundreds of years to implement if things had been handled with ‘velvet gloves’. With a more expeditious, and admittedly reckless, approach? The time frames could be cut immensely. There were risks, sure, but this rapid development would at least please the ‘Predator’ enough to allow humanity to forge a path forward for thousands of years.\n\nNot a great prospect, true. But what was the alternative? Worldwide eradication?\n\nEither anger at the idea, disgust, or simple defiance against the Vigiles’ manipulation, well intended or not, won the day. Humanity would survive, and it would fight.\n\nBut that left a problem for later, one that began brewing as the dust settled and humanity got ready for the Vigiles’ return.\n\nWith most of the political leaders, and those connected to them, put to the sword, humanity thought it could ponder in peace. Few ever looked back and wondered if the many had been justified in destroying the few. Yes, said few had done them dirty in so many ways, many of whom had enjoyed their actions or profited from the cruelty. Yet, in the end, they had done what was necessary.\n\nHad humanity been right in their anger, thus their fear?\n\nOr would resentment be born, fight on, and act up when least expected?\n\nThe answer was simple, and humanity was a species of persistence hunters. Many didn’t even think of this, considering the many crises that were yet to come, but those that had just been ‘wronged’ had resentment that would burn bright for a long while.\n\nSo many things done had been beyond excessive, yet at the same time barely enough. Humanity could see it now, and many of those in charge had been part of a small but sturdy web of connected families that would strengthen their ties even more now. Most of them were seen as undesirables now, but the idea of getting rid of them was as unpalatable as keeping them around, so these once proud families and their cronies were given ways to ‘be useful’, as every single person was forced to be now.\n\nDemeaning, punishing, unjust.\n\nMany of those from the ‘families’ saw it as nothing else but hate towards those that had to sacrifice their own humanity to save the whole. It was undeniable that many lived lavish lifestyles and were showered in money and power, but not all of those involved lacked empathy. Certain members of the families, many of which had been in charge of how to deal with things? Yes. It was impossible to deny, and they accepted it. But was it fair to make the survivors live a life of toil and suffering after all was said and done? Hadn’t they sacrificed enough to try and keep everyone alive?\n\nNo one answered their question, for they weren’t even allowed to ask.\n\nThere was no time for their own suffering to be acknowledged. The families were, at best, thousands in numbers, tens of thousands perhaps.\n\nMeanwhile, as the decisions were being made and humanity was slowly herded towards accepting just how hectic and dire every action would have to be from now on, whole nations came to end. Not in lives, but in borders and ideals. And they weren’t alone; religions, ideologies, political affiliations and more. There was no time to fight on such grounds anymore, and while many ‘nations’ would remain, in a sense, the whole of Earth quickly divided itself into less than half a dozen, instead of the nearly two hundred that had once existed not long ago.\n\nDetermination grew hope.\n\nBut it also grew resentment.\n\nHope created a path forward.\n\nYet also fabricated blindspots.\n\nIn a world of nearly eight billion human souls, less than a million huddled together, looked at what was to happen, and did not look on with hope for survival. They eyed the future as a mere chance to break everything down in revenge.\n\nSo, as the dust settled, a few large nations remained. Tasks were issued. Objectives were planned. A fixation was found.\n\nFirst: Sol System.\n\nThen: As much of the galaxy as they could take.\n\nAnd, in a dark recess of humanity’s soul, a smaller voice proclaimed: Blood for blood when they least expect it.\n\nThe good and the bad were largely ignored by the Vigiles when they returned. There was only the task: Survival had been chosen, so there would be no more interruptions, no more delays or deviations. After one year went by it was time to grow and play the long game.\n\nAnd so came millenia of work, of expansion and constant development.\n\nFor five thousand six hundred and sixty years the humans toiled away. From system to system, from discovery to discovery, problem to problem and decision to decision, humanity worked. Quadrillions of human lives all fit within the Milky Way by the end of it and, sadly, most of them knew they would never see the ‘world of tomorrow’, yet they all kept at it.\n\nIt would not be hard to guess, but not everyone took it well. Some did it with hope for the future. Others with steel like resolve for what their bloodlines had sworn to do. But the constant drudgery took a toll even in the most determined.\n\nFrom day one of the Galactic Era, there had been fights. No matter how dire the danger, there would ALWAYS be fights, disagreements and violence. In fact, with the end always drawing nearer and nearer, everyone knew that every new life added meant one more competitor when the time came. Some became extreme nihilists as the years went by, which usually marked another bout of drama and problems of various kinds.\n\nFights created danger, danger created death, and death created change. And, as it usually does, this all made for many great discoveries… Even if, in time, all these previous fights would lead to, as it usually happens, humanity shooting itself in the foot.\n\nBut, again, as it usually does, if it didn’t create problems directly, such competition and fights made for other developments.\n\nHumanity’s needs and difficulties created a mastery, one not intended, but one that was welcomed and, as things would turn out, it would also become essential in the future.\n\nMastery of bioengineering technology. It surprised humanity as much as the Vigiles when it came almost as quickly, just a couple hundred years in time, as they mastered space. From the already practiced terraforming to curing every sickness, then to perfecting the human genetic code and, finally, the research into functional immortality, cybernetic implants and cosmetic upgrades. It was gradual, of course, but strangely fast… worryingly so in fact. Worries were smoothed over with the many applications they found, and humanity had reached its peak long before the time came for their jailer, the ‘Predator’, to hunt them down. All this knowledge took to mature, all it required was typical human aggression and its eternal companion; humanity’s will to live against all odds.\n\nWhile this mastery’s origins were not glorious, merely an attempt to keep danger (and casualties) low. Conflict wasn’t as common at first, but it originally sparked between ideologies and nations that had either crumbled or lessened in importance. They all had been all but gone long before Mars began terraforming procedures, but over time their remnants chose to raise their voices and…\n\nWell, we all know what happens when some voices find themselves unheard. Their end was neither happy nor glorious, much less pretty. All that came out of it was the beginning of something greater, at the cost of many lives.\n\nBetter healing, better care, better survival both in and out of Earth, in the void of space and, of course, other planets. Then came the toughening of the biological system, followed by the whole genetic code getting rid of many defects, mental deviancies and more. Finally? A near elimination of aging, a way to connect bioengineered and biomechanical replacements when even modern medicine could not heal maladies or wounds for whatever reason. After that? Cosmetic changes and beautification as well as genetic alterations for aesthetic modification; a way to keep themselves entertained and happy even when humans knew their time was limited.\n\nVanity had a way to worm its way into any situation. The galaxy could end at any day? Who cares if there is a new way to look beautiful coming out tomorrow. A superficial way to stave off panic, one of many when counted among every bit of entertainment, every design made for mindless fun and so on. After all, distractions were necessary, no matter their origin, or people would go crazy.\n\nBut vanity had nothing to do with the fear of death that pushed humanity to create the Cloning Centers: Facilities meant to be in constant contact with every single person in the galaxy. If the worst came to happen, the many satellites, relays and other means of transferring information would take the consciousness of a person, keep it safe for a short while, and then inject it back in a cloned body. It was a jarring process that was imperfect, but alongside medical procedures to elongate human life, made sure that ‘immortality’ was, while not guaranteed, close enough. This was a controversial technology that nearly created a rift, if not a downright war, but the things it offered, the security and the possibility to keep going even after death, was far too tempting for people that knew the end was approaching at a constant and unrelenting pace.\n\nOn top of that? Weapons, of course. Weapons, armor and, to an extent, things meant to exist within the ‘Predator’ if the end result was less than, say we say, optimal. Humanity hoped for the best, as it always did, but they also prepared for the worst. Weapons designed to damage cellular destruction. Armor prepared against acidic attacks from gigantic microbes. This all accompanied by many adaptations meant for life inside a living, breathing digestive system that could, at any time, hunger for humanity as a whole.\n\nNone of this had a chance of survival when the day finally came. They could be repurposed, of course; all this technology had been painstakingly made with redundancy after redundancy and many ways to be modified if needed. All of humanity knew that, even if they designed the best technologies, medical, weapons, armor or, of course, even starships, it would do nothing if things ended badly. But they made sure that, even if that did happen and if what they created was less than satisfactory, it all could be modified as quickly as possible the moment something that *worked* was found. So, as always: Prepare for everything to go FUBAR was a mantra humanity practiced religiously.\n\nBut there WAS something that could, COULD, get them to survive and be free. Or, at least, be ‘free’ in a sense. The one thing humanity could not mass produce and that housed the Jump Engines needed to get almost everyone out of this mess.\n\nThe titanic and artificially made planets: The World Ships.\n\nThe second greatest creation of humanity, one created with the idea of the Jump Engines in mind, and with a few nudges from the Vigiles themselves, all of it scaled up to humanity’s wild imagination and tastes. These massive monstrosities, the ‘Worldships’ were massive, at least Earth sized constructs on average. They were, in essence, what humanity would call ‘Home away from home’, and they were incredible creations to be sure. Slow to make, insane resource cost and able to hold billions of souls aboard: They were the ultimate life raft and multipurpose craft in humanity’s last intended voyage within the Milky Way.\n\nSimply put, these vessels were literal artificially constructed worlds that could house billions upon billions of people within them. Their multipurpose origin gave many specialized designs; all of them had been created to become city centers designed for population generation, yes, but soon specialized designs came to be. Scientific worlds for research and development, military training facilities, fabrication worlds and more! All of the later designs were made with singular purposes meant to support one another. In essence these ships could simply create their own ‘systems’ if needed, although humanity hoped that would be needed. On top of that, only these ships would be fitted with Jump Engines, but those would be created with a particularity: A way to open a large enough rift for escort ships to fly alongside the titanic creations, as fitting a literal world full of guns on top of everything else was a level of extra cost and redundancy that humanity thought to be extreme.\n\nThese starships would be humanity’s bastion after their escape. They would be a cry for freedom! And there would be many willing to risk being left behind in flying weapons if that is what it took.\n\nOr, if things didn't turn out as most hoped, these massive constructions would be their homes and holdouts if they fell into the belly of the beast. All the while the escorting ships would, hopefully, remain close enough to still be of use.\n\nDespite their best efforts and time spent, reality was not kind. Five and half millenia could be enough, but humanity had needed no word from the Vigiles to know that it could, if anything happened, be far less than they would ever need to escape. Humanity had once considered seeing prey running from them as a good thing; it meant their sustenance was assured, if hard won. For the ‘Predator’ this was a game, an amusing one: It would get fed more and taken in its new prey’s intelligence, or it would gain less sustenance and learn far more than originally expected. To it it was the same, either option was a great outcome if it helped the ‘Predator’ in the future. Every single human was aware of how this cat and mouse game could end, and none wanted for the cat to win, but the possibility was there, and it was solid.\n\nIn fact, the cat analogy was fitting: The ‘Predator’ could, at any time, call the gig up. As soon as it considered things were right, if it was hungry, or just bored, it could decide that the dinner bell had been going on long enough for its tastes and it was time to attend.\n\nAnd in the year 5661 of the Galactic Era, the ‘Predator’ seemed to think that its hunger was strong enough for that bell to be tempting beyond measure. That, and as it gazed upon humanity, the ‘Predator’ came to a conclusion: It was enough.\n\nEnough resources had been refined. Enough worlds had been cleaned of materials. Enough time had been given. The lonely species to develop this time had tried its best.\n\nKidnenss wasn’t in its vocabulary, and its needs had to be met.\n\nThe hunt was on, and the ‘Predator’ did not discriminate: It just rolled inwards the moment it decided to act.\n\nWorse by far: It came early.\n\nThe Vigiles had the dubious honor of having mapped the ‘Predator’s’ behavior almost religiously. Their earliest estimates for the creature’s activation, if its future desires were as relatively predictable as was the norm, had been estimated to take seven to eight thousand years, depending on various factors. Yet the creature woke up what could be considered a day early in galactic terms? As small a change as it sounded, it was beyond unprecedented.\n\nAnd catastrophic.\n\nOne thing the Vigiles did not share was this: They had machines constantly analyzing the creature’s insides. For the longest time those machines had been the ones to make sure the Vigiles’ predictions about the monster were within 99.99% accuracy. A near perfect overview of an entity of gargantuan proportions should not have been possible, much less with its own control over all its surface and processes. It was this event that exposed something both simple and terrifying to the Vigiles: The ‘Predator’ allowed for this monitoring to go on and, if so desired, it could just fool the Vigiles, people who had whole planets designed to keep an eye on this monster, without even trying.\n\nThere was nothing to ‘miss’, there was no error. The Predator had just decided to isolate every sensor in its body and lie to the Vigiles as it watched over humanity’s advancements. Its hunger and curiosity intertwined, the ‘Predator’ would allow no further meddling, and when it considered that the time was right, he exposed, once again, how little control the Vigiles truly had over anything in this universe.\n\nIt would be an understatement to say this caught Humanity with its pants down.\n\nOn one hand: Tens of thousands of World Ships had been created.\n\nOn another: That only covered a fraction of the population and most of those World Ships were still unfinished.\n\nThe time frame had changed. An extra thousand years or so had already been taken into account for every plan possible. At worst all of humanity had expected for five hundred years more, give or take a hundred. Confidence in the Vigiles, despite thousands of years since their reveal, had never been high, much less absolute, so the vast majority of humans did not trust their information. But this? To be surprised in a way that some Vigiles seemed to just… faint? Consciousness locked in their proxi suits for minutes, or hours, because they had been bested once again with something the massive monster likely considered less than smoke and mirrors, less than a parlor trick.\n\nIn truth the ‘Predator’ had been maturing fast during the last attempts from the Vigiles. It had been an ‘adult’ for a long time, but constant mental stimulation from an outside source had accelerated further development. By no means was the ‘Predator’ a sage, or just above average, for its species, but for an entity whose whole body could also count as an active brain, a massive and (comparatively for a regular sized sapient being) omniscient supercomputer, its capabilities were beyond regular mortals BEFORE it had taken such a leap. Its decision making had been impossible to discern before, unless the ‘Predator’ decided it would be interesting to communicate and see their reactions. After it had matured enough? Literal four dimensional chess would be trivial for it. As such it was much too simple for the ‘Predator’ to come to a decision: Humanity was ripe, one way or another.\n\nCould be considered a blessing that the entity still thought it could learn, and that it still found the hunt ‘fun’.\n\nHumanity, and the Vigiles, didn’t share the sentiment.\n\nWith surprising alacrity the monster attacked. Dozens of worlds fell silent in a few hours; outposts with automated signals, sure, but places still useful one way or another. Most had been heavily mined and were unlivable by default, even for most extremophiles, but to see them being engulfed in a mass of what appeared to be gelatinous flesh of colors that changed every time you looked at it, was simply horrific. Worse yet: The ‘flesh’ advanced at breakneck speeds, only stopping at what seemed to be fixed intervals.\n\nA ruse, or a natural feature of the creature? Perhaps just a game or a negative effect of activating itself earlier? That had never been observed and the Vigiles held no answers, at least none that humanity trusted. Almost all humans had done was backed by assurances they hadn’t really trusted, and now that they were vindicated, the Vigiles seemed more unreliable than ever. Considering the time the robotic bodies took to come out of their panic induced daze, this distrust only grew.\n\nAnd the deaths that came soon made things predictably worse.\n\nSo many World Ships were unfinished that the comparatively simple, if still massive, escort ships that were to accompany them had, in essence, no real use, not if the ‘Predator’ overtook the worlds where these unfinished ships were being manufactured. These things were weapons of desperation and transports in a pinch with upscaled weapons and cargo holds. They had two uses, and one of them was required over the other.\n\nThese ships, lacking Jump Engines, could be lost. It was a horrid thought, but also a pragmatic one. Everyone knew it, and everyone had accepted it long ago. Thousands of gigantic ships that could have leveled planets were instead equipped mainly with weapons designed to combat a biological enemy, and everyone, on board or not, could only hope they did their job well if it ever came to that.\n\nCourage and determination fueling many captains and crews, the ships whose preferred purpose would never come took to every corner of the galaxy as the devouring process started. Their weapons proved effective: The organic wave rolling in decayed, melted or just dissipated into apparently nothing. Every shot, the size of a cannonball, composed of a solidified liquid meant to melt upon contact with the ‘Predator’, made holes the size of a house when they touched the creature. And that was just the simplest weapon.\n\nEvery ship had a large variety of ordinance, including explosive deliveries meant to spread the solution in ways that could create a massive hole in the ‘Predator’s’ surface, continuous, almost ‘laser’ like streams, teleporting explosives and even automated drones that managed to last seconds within the monster, cutting pieces of the creature the size of large asteroids at a time. Liquid mixtures that could freeze island sized chunks, or turn them into blazing infernos. Very limited, experimental explosives that spread fungus meant to decay flesh at incredible speeds.\n\nHumanity used everything they could and used it well. A valiant defense, an impressive effort. No one would deny that.\n\nReally incredible, even the Vigiles admitted that without shame. Truth was truth.\n\nAlso completely meaningless. That much wasn’t a surprise, even if hope did flare into existence for a second.\n\nAn armada the likes of which could easily conquer galaxies was deployed to contain one single monster, and while the ‘Predator’ likely didn’t even feel pain from this, it felt annoyance. Yes, its mass was depleted, reabsorbed and repurposed, wasting a small smidge of resources. That alone was simply beyond incredible when it came to resistance. But no, it did no damage. The ‘fight’ lasted a few days as the ‘Predator’ took this new knowledge in, which amounted to enough of its mass being ‘destroyed’ to create a world big enough to fit all of Sol System’s planets, even the sun, within.\n\nTo the predator that much damage amounted to a slight inch on the tip of a finger.\n\nKnowledge acquired, and annoyance surpassing what could pass for patience with this creature, the ‘Predator’ pushed forward. Not ‘quite’ forward though, as it proved once more that what the Vigiles knew was just what the ‘Predator’ wished to share with them: From behind, above, bellow and the sides, the ‘Predator’s’ mass enveloped the ships, one by one, all over the galaxy. Those that fought were quickly assimilated, their connection to the rest of the galaxy, to the Cloning Centers and to the medical database, was snapped.\n\nEveryone that volunteered to stall the monster was gone.\n\nDead.\n\nTens of thousands, more than a hundred thousands lives lost in a snap.\n\nSuch an event hadn’t happened since they left the Sol System.\n\nAnd everyone knew, they KNEW, that if the necessary crew for these ships wasn’t less than half a dozen thanks to their ships AIs and ease of use, these hundreds of thousands would have been MILLIONS. Simply horrible.\n\nHumanity panicked, with reason: They tried and they hoped, but there was no denying it anymore, nor was there hope left. The end was coming, and it accelerated its pace after being defied.\n\nDespair was about to set in, until survivors began to trickle into the limelight.\n\nAn unprecedented event: All that was touched by the ‘Predator’ had, in the past, been melted, digested and assimilated. Yet this time, as the ‘Predator’ made another push and this time it did reach either habitats in space or sparse colonies in the periphery, some managed to escape after the entity touched them and their ships.\n\nWhat was this? How was it possible? The answer was relatively simple: As everything was alive, and as almost everything in the galaxy came from multiple feedings from the ‘Predator’, with some new materials floating into the Milky Way at intervals, everything had evolved.\n\nHorrible as it was to think, everything in the Milky Way had, over time, grown to be connected with its constant devourer. Every material was easier to process, every creature welcomed the touch of the monster that was going to eat them, and every sapient entity had this natural dread at the idea of being consumed. This strange relationship had reached its climax during humanity’s evolution: A natural resilience to the ‘Predator’s’ hunger and a much more pronounced adaptability than any previous species in the Milky Way.\n\nIt was… imperfect, though.\n\nEvolution at a galactic, if not universal, scale was, as proven by the ‘Predator’ itself, very slow. Immunity was impossible to acquire; everything eats and is eaten in one way or another. Resistance to predation? That was easier to achieve. But resistance does not mean invulnerability in any way, much less when it was a ‘simple’ resistance, such as what Humanity had developed. As such, survivors brought great discoveries, but not all of them were pleasant.\n\nBest case scenario: Cybernetic augmentation. Cyborg creation.\n\nUndesirable when compared to biological augmentation that had been common for many millennia, cybernetics had always been available as soon as bioengineering reached its peak. Grafting artificial limbs was much simpler than cloning a perfect replacement, but it was also seen as a much cruder and inferior way of doing things. However, survivors from the ‘Predator’ seemed to reject such ‘perfect’ cloned copies. For some reason, once attached, the areas that had been touched by the ‘Predator’, that melted and became basically digested slurry with the person still alive, would suffer the same fate even without being near the entity. As such, and with no other way around it, artificial body parts and organs were necessary for those with a natural resilience to the creature.\n\nWorst case: Complete body melting. Bioform manufacturing.\n\nA much more pronounced resistance to the ‘Predator’s’ effects granted a human the ability of surviving the ‘digestion’ for longer, but pronounced exposure would create an ‘allergic’ reaction where the body would be digested all the same. What survived was their consciousness, instead of also being absorbed by the creature. This, more often than not, ended in ego death: Cloning the body whole and inserting their consciousness, as was normal by now, ended in the ‘allergic’ reaction taking place again, forcing a new digestion and a world of pain once more. Most people could survive perhaps a dozen processes before the mind shut down and became unavailable for the cloning process. They were essentially dead and gone.\n\nThis required innovation, which resulted in resurrecting an old project: The Bioform initiative.\n\nAlmost as old as Cyborgs, or the idea of them, the Bioforms were meant to give people immortal bodies: Biomechanical replicas that were, by all intents and purposes, living metal. A mix of organic compounds, human genetic material and metals that had been concocted during the initial perfection drive with Bioengineering. The project was scrapped after functional immortality became a thing, but within weeks artificial bodies were made for those that survived the ‘Predator’ with ill fated consequences.\n\nDespite how gruesome and brutal this was, it drove away despair from many hearts. Some people could resist, or even ‘survive’ the monster that was engulfing them! Then that meant that, yes, escape was indeed possible. By no means would it be easy, no, but it would be far better than waiting for the monster to end them all.\n\nIt was strange but, by that same logic, the ‘Predator’ found itself allowing humans those small ‘breathers’ that it had been taking. Creatures that could resist its touch? Intriguing. From what sparse contact it had with others of its species, the ‘Predator’ had never seen this happen. Granted that most of its brethren were far more ‘thorough’ with their devouring, sometimes ending a galaxy in a few dozen feedings, instead of how long the ‘Predator’ had been living in the same spot. Perhaps that was the reason? Curiosity and hunger collided, but in the end the ‘Predator’s’ vast intelligence won with a simple answer.\n\nEither way, it would get everything.\n\nIt knew that it would happen, all thanks to some of the lives it had taken already.\n\nThere was no rush, but advance was inevitable. Hunger demanded, and needs must. The reprieve the ‘Predator’ offered was there for a reason, but it would not be merciful, for it was not in its nature.\n\nMeanwhile, humanity and the Vigiles were in an uproar.\n\nThe Vigiles themselves were extremely low in resources; their ships and robotic proxies were here to help and do little else. They were overseers, not fighters. The days in which they employed force to attain their desires were long gone. Far too many things in the universe were above and beyond the possibility of violence that, in effect, all the Vigiles had found to be useful was either diplomacy or defense. Even their technological expertise could not be used, simply because any ‘taint’ of their own designs would be like playing russian roulette: If any part of their own Jump Engines made it into humanity’s own design, be it just compatibility, chance, or ease of use that could be implemented, escape would be impossible.\n\nThat the Bioforms could come to be made in record time was thanks to the Vigiles, although it came at a cost. They would not share their technology in fear of making Humanity an easier time during a Jump, but their defensive technologies were indeed far beyond what humans had developed. With a fraction of the ships that Humanity had used the Vigiles managed to stop, really stop, the ‘Predator’ for a few days. An incredible feat without a doubt, but one that required the Vigiles’ self-destruction in less than a week once the ‘Predator’ figured out how to bypass this new annoyance. More worrying, if not downright horrible, was how the creature had done something that would have taken most advanced species years, perhaps decades, in just days. With no desire to give the creature even more comprehension of their technologies, much less information about their new discoveries, nearly all Vigiles created detonations so strong that they DID bother the monster.\n\nBut bothering something this size barely meant feeling perhaps a slight breeze. It was a little more than Humanity’s own attempt, but in the end it just didn’t do more than delay the inevitable.\n\nWhat was mere seconds, if that, for the ‘Predator’, less than a week of extra resistance, was enough for the furious humans to work things through.\n\nNot only had the Cyber initiatives been brought back, now that what was meant to be lethal contact had proven to be less than that, at least in many cases, but many recurring problems had been smoothed over for obvious reasons. Despite the comparative peace they had enjoyed, if you looked at most star faring species, Humanity hadn’t been free of conflict during its growth.\n\nPirates, small civil wars, general riots or dissidents… All of that had been a thing, but so ‘small’ in comparison to the big picture, to the great discoveries and problems they faced, that, at best, they were footnotes in history. Many of those had pushed technology forward (infighting had, after all, been the primary developer of the Cloning Centers above all other dangers), and now, as Humanity’s last stand came to be a real thing, as oblivion or survival was their only options, they all ceased in every capacity.\n\nBarely there World Ships were constructed or cannibalized in record time. Projects that would take years, decades even, completed in days as billions of souls converged, then focused on speeding up everything that was to be done. It was a makeshift job in comparison, but still masterfully done if you considered the alternative.\n\nIt still left many billions, perhaps trillions, with a simple realization: There weren’t going to be enough ships for everyone.\n\nResources and people were easy to come by, but even then two weeks were hardly enough, no matter the rush job. Thus, knowing real death awaited them, many volunteered to do as the first wave of defenders had done and stall for time.\n\nIt was an exercise in futility and everyone that volunteered knew it. What could they do? To top everything else off, something the ‘Predator’ had done time and time again, the damn monster had proven that it could appear from anywhere. The ever advancing ‘flesh’ that it had manifested was just a way for it to toy with its food.\n\nThe people volunteering didn’t think they could truly stall the monster. They believed they could entice it with a distraction just to feed its ego, entertain it and show the ‘Predator’ just how determined Humanity was.\n\nRather surprisingly, it worked.\n\nOr, just as likely if not more, the ‘Predator’ allowed it to work.\n\nFrom planetary defense to whole star system collapses and quickly modified ships crafted quickly (an easy feat when compared to a World Ship) with materials that had proven to be harder to absorb, Humans died by the billions to buy hours, not days. In a grim way the expansion of old had the intended effect, but not at the expected cost.\n\nThat is a lie: It was the expected cost. Less than expected in fact, just not by most.\n\nBecause there was a small group, numerically speaking, that had been waiting for this and, when the opportunity presented itself, they took action. It could have been sooner, yes, but the Vigiles were still around. Now, with them virtually nonexistent in the Milky Way as it was consumed, the perfect moment had been presented.\n\nHumanity was dying, but it wasn’t out. Remnants of Jump Engines were nowhere to be found wherever the ‘Predator’ was approaching too fast, and with tens of thousands of World Ships ready to go as countless lives were lost every day, a pyrrhic victory was on the horizon. So many people had lost loved ones, family, friends… but survival was not only possible: It was guaranteed. At the very least that was the positive thinking of those that had been lucky enough to board the planet sized ships. Morale was down to its last dregs, but hope for a better tomorrow was holding everyone together. Much had been lost, but every sacrifice would be honored and the memories would remain with the survivors.\n\nHere is where Humanity proposed a question that derailed everything for a very short time. Just enough for an answer, in fact.\n\nTo what lengths would you go for hate?\n\nThe answer?\n\nGenocide.\n\nMillenia of resentment, hate, anger and feeling betrayed had festered in one particular group of people. Founded by the descendants of those that had once ensured Humanity never went too far, by any means necessary, this group would in the future be known as the ‘Betrayers’. It had absorbed not only members from old nations absorbed by Humanity in its ascension, or remnants of religious groups from old, but also many of those unhappy with the constant drudgery and almost enforced single mindedness of life that required for people to do little more than work, breed, expand and prepare in such a monotonous way that any pleasure and color was literally drained from their lives.\n\nNothing was perfect, and the society humans had constructed to escape the ‘Predator’ was a thankless one. With entertainment scarce and the grind always on, it was not hard for small groups with a vendetta to slowly drag people into their clutches. Give such hate enough time, and have the group become as insular as possible, and in time you could get a reaction as catastrophical as the one that took place here.\n\nThe Betrayers used their World Ship to Jump into the ‘Predator’.\n\nNot to escape and somehow doom everyone.\n\nNot to create a chain reaction that would destroy or damage most other World Ships.\n\nThere was no plan conceivable that could damage humanity enough for these people to be satisfied. But there was ONE way to at least satisfy part of their hate and consider some of the old grudges solved. Do ignore the many, many others still in effect: This plan was satisfying, yes, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.\n\nAll it took was one precise calculation to jump exactly into the dimension the ‘Predator’ was in. A reality in which the monster was many times LARGER than it already was.\n\nIt was suicide.\n\nIt was insane.\n\nIt was literal doom for everyone.\n\nThe Betrayers could not care any less. For all they were concerned, Humanity would get exactly what it deserved.\n\nA massive number of people were dead, having selflessly sacrified themselves to keep Humanity safe for mere days, but long enough to guarantee the survival of trillions upon trillions of human lives. The death toll was absurd.\n\nJust as absurd as having a galaxy wide call prove just how far hate can drive you to go.\n\nCould it get worse? Why, yes.\n\nNot only did this doom every single human in the Milky Way; it was just physically impossible to create a different version of the Jump Engine that was compatible with human biology in what little time was left. There weren’t enough people or means left to entertain the ‘Predator’ and, all of sudden, its interest in those games was lost.\n\nSomeone had delivered themselves into its body! That was sincerely new.\n\nCurious even.\n\nThus came the even bigger surprise and middle finger: The Betrayers could, somehow, ignore much of the ‘Predator’s’ means.\n\nTheir connection to the Cloning Centers and the data banks that held humanity together was gone, yes, but they weren’t dead. In fact, as humans would soon discover, the ‘Predator’ would indeed not kill them. And yet, unlike Humanity at large, the Betrayers would gain a boon in a way no one but them, and perhaps the ‘Predator’ were aware of: Unlike all others, the Betrayers would be allowed to keep their World Ship, and their freedom, largely intact.\n\nEveryone else? Not so much.\n\nTheir revenge would come to no cost of their own in the end. Right or wrong, they had gotten away with all they wanted. Even then, they weren’t happy with it and, in the future, they would come to harass who they called their sworn enemies. In the interim, they had given the ‘Predator’ everything it needed to catch every escapee without difficulty.\n\nFor a second it thought of letting them go.\n\nThere were far too many reasons as to why it thought to do so. Chief of all? Humanity’s danger and adaptability.\n\nIronically enough, it was that danger, and that incredible adaptability, that told the ‘Predator’ to keep them.\n\nWhile it would leave the Betrayers’ World Ship intact, either of its own volition or whatever kept them ‘safe’ from its manipulation beyond a ‘basic’ conversion, the ‘Predator’ could still make use of the billions of humans aboard the huge ship. In time they would breed in the many species the ‘Predator’ would design for them. They would become its own body cells, Human Cells, to make sure its body kept working as intended.\n\nAnd THAT was exactly why the monster decided to keep Humanity.\n\nIts growth had been… anomalous, for its kind that is.\n\nIts species was chaotic by nature; parasites in this huge entity that was the universe, they were usually hunted down by its own natural defenses. Absorbing many genetic makeups and forever changing with their mastery over biology was the one way to survive for the ‘Predator’s’ species.\n\nBut they usually devoured galaxies whole in a few feedings. This constant that the ‘Predator’ had created was rare, but not unheard off. It proved to be a negative, though, as its nature had changed, and the desire to move on, to find new feeding grounds, was largely inert. Considering the ‘males’ of its kind, those that did not create new offspring, were meant to prey on everything to keep the ‘females’ safe, its behaviour had changed to dangerous levels. Other changes came with it; Its own inner workings had been damaged, meaning its ability to process materials, recycle them, acquire what it needed and so on, meaning its whole metabolic process had been altered for the worst.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ required no help, nor would it do so for millions, if not billions, of years, if it remained alive that long. But like any other living being, like humans and other species, it could benefit from a ‘vaccine’ of some kind.\n\nHumans, as it turned out, were the perfect external bodies for that kind of work.\n\nThere was no rush for the ‘Predator’. It could wait many feedings before this could even be considered a problem. It could even force itself to move, as its kind ought to do, despite not desiring to.\n\nAnd yet…\n\nThe temptation of acquiring one of the most interesting species, one that had done so many strange things, that had even pushed those ‘pests’ that called themselves ‘Vigiles’ of all things, was too strong. This species was far too useful for the ‘Predator’s’ needs, far too interesting and just so attuned with its own body already. Surviving its touch all but proved this.\n\nCuriosity, future needs and a touch of real interest forged the future of the human species. There was no ‘care’ or ‘love’ for the species, not in a way a human could identify it. No, it was more a ‘care’ in the sense of a master to their dog, or perhaps pet insects, ones that could make the master’s life better, and they may need to be taught, or culled, regularly.\n\nIn the ‘Predator’s’ mind there was purpose. Yes, it had come to appreciate the uniqueness of the humans, but such unique features COULD appear again, more so if its touch was making such wonders appear more frequently. It fancied itself not a ‘god’, but its mastery over biology and incredible experience in general, brought with age, were enough to tell the ‘Predator’ this would be so. Yet, this was a unique moment in its life, and perhaps its own version of fancy, that desire to see where Humanity could go if its own touch could make sure to shape their future even more, all mixed with its own needs and desire, won the day.\n\nAnd while this took mere moments for the ‘Predator’ to decide, Humanity’s own path took no time at all.\n\nBecause rage has a way to overcome despair, and there was no species in the known galaxy so spiteful in their rage as the human species.\n\nIf they were to die, or be taken? Then they would go with the biggest, loudest bang ever!\n\nEvery person left their makeshift frontlines. Every man, woman and child loaded themselves in the new memory bank of their World Ships. A simple process, one made even easier by using the Cloning Centers to remain in suspended animation while the AI of these massive ships would take care of the Jump. This was meant to be the last action of Humanity in the Milky Way, and one that left a mark.\n\nAt first it could look as if they were attempting to go with the escape plan; whether it worked or failed, being in stasis would at least ensure no one was conscious, and as every other hope was lost, there was no reason to cram everyone in. Almost every ship was filled over capacity and many pods in the Cloning Centers had to fit more than one person, something that was never meant to happen. It all appeared to be a desperate measure to try, Jump through the barrier to escape, and land safely away. Even one ship would do!\n\nCounting that everyone was, technically, alive, that is.\n\nThe AI in every World Ship was deceptively simple, and above all else, even the protection of human life, it had a simple command: To self destruct if no signs of life were found. This included the Cloning Centers’ databases. A full decrewing event was meant to signify capture by the ‘Predator’, and the AI of this ship was meant to have at least a couple million living souls within scanner range ANYWHERE in its surface. These World Ships were meant to be used forever, ideally at least, and the thought of ever abandoning them had become so alien to some that even after freedom was achieved they would remain the home of countless humans.\n\nWith this in mind, these ships were packed with energy to points that old humans would compare to a star. And it was relatively simple to make it go supernova. All it needed was rerouting the power into specific key points to make the biggest explosion Humanity had ever created. The idea was that, even for something like the ‘Predator’, such a searing pain, more so when facing its real body in this part of subspace, would allow for other, undamaged (or less compromised), World Ships to escape as the monster recoiled in pain.\n\nAdmittedly it was an idea that could have worked.\n\nCould.\n\nTens of thousands of World Ships overcharging themselves and exploding like that? If Humanity knew where and how to send them to hit the ‘Predator’s’ weak points, few as they were, they could have either weakened, or even killed, the creature. It was one of those things you have one in a million chance to accomplish, true; even a supernova was very small, like a firecracker, for the ‘Predator’. But everyone knew that a firecracker could hurt, or do even worse, to a person if one was unlucky enough.\n\n‘Victory’ or just ‘hurting’ the ‘Predator’ wasn’t the plan. Humanity had its numbers shrunk dramatically in less than a month. They had to go through a mad dash of work, loss, mental anguish and, finally, hopelessness sprinkled with the biggest dose of anger the species had ever seen. This wasn’t about making a rational choice when rationality had thrown out the window and any possibility of ‘victory’ was burned to cinder. This was a big ‘FUCK YOU!’, with a species wide middle finger involved on it all.\n\nWhat Humanity did was ask the creators of the Cloning Center’s programming to make a simple modification. A perk of this ‘immortality’ of theirs; the original programmers were there, and very aware of how to create a single moment, seconds really, in which the World Ships would consider all lost and then ignite.\n\nIt was a process that no living being could hope to stop, and one created with milliseconds left to react to something so destructive, so big, that it should have been flawless in execution. A collective death pact that had every single human’s agreement. What was the alternative? Being consumed or enslaved by that thing? With virtually every person left in the Milky Way having lost something to the monster, no one saw it fit to give that thing anything more, not without a proper farewell.\n\nOne thing was overlooked, of course.\n\nThis took barely a day to execute. Quick recalls, frenzied programming and orderly, if grim execution, was all impressive indeed. A process like this was nearly machine in efficiency when it came to Humanity’s more commonly seen chaos.\n\nAs for the ‘Predator’? For the creature it took a moment of thought to know that Humanity would either capitulate as they lost their will… Or they would do the most batshit insane thing they could ever hope for.\n\nAnd wouldn’t you know? While the Betrayers were ‘spared’ the ‘Predator’s’ full touch, they had been in its clutches for long enough to already begin their adaptation into its body. This included their World Ship and, incidentally… one of the creators of the very programming that would become key in Humanity’s blaze of glory.\n\nEven after they had doomed everyone, after having done all they thought they could, the Betrayers still managed to mess with their brethren one last time.\n\nHumanity as a whole did not know this, and even if they did, they would have tried anyway. With everything else lost, what else was there to do?\n\nFar more important than that was the simple reality that even the ‘Predator’ had a chance of failing to catch the payload that was about to go its way. The precision required to detect, disarm and then ‘save’ every single World Ship was… tricky. Explosions were one thing, but with everyone in the Cloning Centers sleeping in pods, there were other means to just snuff the light of every single soul in a World Ship when the Predator’s presence was detected. \n\nDespite everything, Humanity hadn’t suddenly become stupid in their rage. There had been protocols and precautions long before this crazy plan was set in motion. But all would matter and be as effective as one another the moment the World Ships made the Jump.\n\nBecause, at the end of the day, what the ‘Predator’ wanted, the ‘Predator’ got.\n\nSo when a massive horde of planet sized ships finally made a coordinated jump, intent of at least causing a ruckus and ensuring the monster hunting the species within would both feel and remember its latest prey for millenia to come. They had expected for the thing to wait for them, to try and minimize damage, or hunt them, or try to capture them. What they didn’t expect was for the ‘Predator’ to invest energy in cushioning their jump, invade their homes at incredible speed, nullify their attempt at immolation and then ‘save’ every World Ship from catastrophic damage and life loss when their protocols almost destroyed many of the ships from the inside when they could not do anything else.\n\nHumanity’s self-destructive behavior when they had no other way out was well documented, and they had so many redundancies that, even for the ‘Predator’, it was impossible to get a perfect score. Many World Ships suffered damage, sometimes catastrophic damage. The lives within were preserved the moment its touch fell on them, though whether the humans would ever appreciate it or not was debatable. Nevertheless, no World Ship escaped, no World Ship exploded and, more importantly, for the ‘Predator’ anyway, the monster had gotten what it wanted.\n\nA story of tragedy,horror and loss just ended in the snap of the fingers.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ won.\n\nThat was it.\n\nNo fanfare or great event. Just a blip of the radar as the World Ships jumped in and, within seconds, Humanity was gone.\n\nIn a sense at least.\n\nFrom the outside, the Vigiles knew this was another loss. The ‘Predator’ got a new servant species OR Humanity had died out. Either way, as it was the norm, the Vigiles could only prepare for the next time they would be needed. Millions of years would go by once more, but for them, just as it would have for Humanity, had they escaped, time had turned immaterial.\n\nVictory would have been satisfying, vindictive, but that was… hard to come by.\n\nIronically enough, this was the same for the ‘Predator’. To it, that day was another Tuesday.\n\nYes, it wanted Humanity. Yes, it would need such a species within itself in the future. Yes, it had finally noticed that something was wrong within itself… But that was life, a capricious moment and age, not necessarily in the correct order, not that the massive entity cared much for it.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ was changing Humanity. That is all that mattered now. That, and the fact that, whether they liked it or not, Humanity would come to accept their new lot.\n\nTheir adaptability would see to it. And if not? Some minor meddling by dispersing pheromones and mental manipulation would get the trick done.\n\nMorals were for simpler creatures than the ‘Predator’ after all.\n\nBut for Humanity?\n\nThis was a new beginning. It would be far more terrible, yet hopeful, than they could ever imagine. However, the start would be shocking beyond belief. Horror could hardly explain how it felt like when, one by one, the dreamers began to come out of their pods. They had expected death, perhaps Heaven, Hell, maybe even just ‘nothing’ and for everything to be gone in a second.\n\nTo Humanity, waking up was a cold realization: Slavery.\n\nNo, it was even worse. Their wake up brought something worse.\n\nMutation and mental manipulation.\n\nMere days were needed. After that? Some people woke up normally… only not quite. Men, as a whole, were almost gone. There was the rare proper man, some of which were even larger and more robust than before. But for most of them? A more feminine appearance, borderline female, even adding breasts to the mix, was commonplace. The male sex was, by and large, almost eradicated.\n\nThat didn’t mean ‘maleness’ was gone, though.\n\nHermaphroditism, intersexed individuals and so on became the norm. Even regular women became a minority, but still above the abysmal zero point zero, one percent that were the men, and that was a hopeful number. Nearly everyone, except for the larger, ‘full fledged’ males, could slowly, or sometimes even rapidly, turn into a more female adjacent form, get bred and be impregnated.\n\nA complete rework of how humans worked.\n\nSomething to have a mental breakdown over.\n\nOnly barely anyone did.\n\nSome people broke down, but this was one case in a million, perhaps less.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ had worked its magic: Humanity’s brain chemistry had been altered. Their biology had remained human, or compatible with what a human should be, but they had been changed in certain ways; bioengineered to the core.\n\nShock, surprise and no small levels of horror hit Humanity as this was found out. It became worse when they discovered that, yes, they were within the massive body of the ‘Predator’. Trapped within a different dimension, a space between spaces, every single human was now property of the monster. It was also clear the thing had decided to ‘upgrade’ its catch, and this alone, paired with the few cases of insanity, as well as the damage that some World Ships had suffered, took Humanity’s whole attention. No one was yet aware of just how much things had taken a turn… until there was no way to deny it anymore and knowledge began to spread.\n\nHow? By discovering that humans weren’t quite ‘humans’ anymore. In fact, this discovery came when the first ‘not quite humans’ began to wake up.\n\nThese transhumans did not wake up at the same time as those that remained ‘vanilla human’, at least in looks. Whereas the regular humans took a few days, others would take at least a week. More than enough time for the original problems to be tackled and for people to have calmed down *slightly*, though many wondered why only a small portion of the people from the Cloning Centers had gotten out of the pods. Their answer would appear the moment the first variants of the new human species began to wake up: The Cyborgs and Bioforms.\n\nOriginally thought to be perfectly fine, it wasn’t until tests began to pour in that everyone noticed an incredible number of inconsistencies and differences. Things their mind had blocked now became glaringly obvious.\n\nCyborgs weren’t humans with artificial parts grafted in: Their prosthetics now were a literal part of them, not something that could be taken off and replaced.\n\nBioforms weren’t those that had survived in a semi liquid state, their minds inserted in biometal. Instead now their bodies were fully biological, but instead served as an (apparent) technological shell for their soft insides, as if they were an insect.\n\nThey were just the first. Soon the realization struck as many others, none of them any closer to regular humans than the ones that came before, began to appear; Humans mixed with sperm cells and egg cells came first, then white cells, muscle cells and so many others. The biodiversity of the species had increased to absurd levels, not helped by the fact that many of these new ‘breeds’ of humans were also mixed with some kind of animal by default and for reasons unknown to humanity as a whole. \n\nSome of those mixed genetic codes made sense. White Cell humans were mixed with felines, mostly domestic cats, whereas Muscle Cells had been hybridized with primates, mostly gorillas, eye cells had been mixed with moths, ear cells with bats. In a way you could see it. Others? Others had mixed that made even less sense. What did a kidney cell have to do with a fox? Or a blood cell with a dog? Lung cells and frogs could be considered normal in this madness?\n\nHumanity stopped trying to understand the reasonings soon enough.\n\nAlmost every new Human Cell, except traditional ‘humans’, Cyborgs and Bioforms, had been modified even further than first thought. Whether they made sense or not,the vast majority of them had been given animal genetics by the ‘Predator’ to help with their new functions in one way or another. Incredible abilities were discovered as time went on, and the utility alone mollified many of those that (easily) found reason to be angry at the change. If you were to be altered without your consent, at least having some kind of power or ability to make up for it was the least you could expect and hope for. A silver lining, thin as it was for many.\n\nTheir own bodies, even those of the regular humans, had been changed even further than that, if you can believe it. It was quickly confirmed that their inside, while resembling what they had once been, minus the strange sexual transformations that had befallen them, were there for ‘show’: Oh sure, they could digest food, they needed to breathe and they could reproduce sexually (in fact they could do this much better than before!), but none of the organs were really needed for these things to happen.\n\nAnd their skin? Oh, that was the best part. The human skin, of ALL breeds, was no skin. It was a plasma membrane, similar to that of a cell, unsurprisingly enough. Incredibly tough, but insanely elastic, far more so than it should have been for an organism the size of a human, this membrane perfectly mimicked the feel of everything it was trying to imitate: Hair, skin, teeth and more… But it was all for show in the end and largely controlled by the human ‘brain’ and the desire to be ‘normal’.\n\nHumanity had become what one could call ‘Cells’. Or ‘Human Cells’, as the collective began to define what they had become, some nearly losing their mind over it when their surprise and incredulity died down.\n\nAnd yet again, almost no one had to suffer even a second of mental anguish. Once again, the ‘Predator’ made sure that its acquisitions were impervious to such mental instability. It did not make them invulnerable to rage at the fact, or even the insanity itself, but there was little they could do and the effect made sure that almost, nearly one hundred percent of them, stayed sane.\n\nEven then, if this was too much, suicide didn’t help. Not even trying to wipe themselves from the Cloning Center databases did.\n\nThe ‘Predator’ had ALL of them in its clutches.Even their consciousness was no longer stored in the machines, most, if not ALL, of which were machines only in LOOK, as vast sections of the ‘Predator’ had been assimilated into flesh that looked just as humans would have expected their World Ships to look. In essence every single human was now at the mercy of the ‘Predator’, and the entity made sure to make this painfully obvious to those that tried to do something drastic about their fate.\n\nWith such revelations falling one after the other in their lap, and their ability to communicate limited by the ‘Predator’s’ will, Humanity as a whole found that their freedom was now not in question, instead being just gone. They had become slaves to the ‘Predator’, and they would soon learn their place.\n\nStaving off infection.\n\nKeeping organs working properly.\n\nAiding in the processing of materials.\n\nEnsuring their own World Ships, or the mockery lookalikes left behind the absorption event, were all safe and in tip top condition.\n\nAll of those were to be their daily toll. \n\nTitanic Macro Bacteria and gigantic Mega Viruses, things that went from the size of a rat to that of buildings, ships or even large, were a painful reality. These monsters lived in the space between spaces, in various other dimensions and far away from the human eye… until now. Part of Humanity’s obligations would see them battling these monstrosities wherever they appeared.\n\nMany of their manufacturing centers, recycling factories and purifying plants had been repurposed, or imitations of them had been ‘grown’ close to functioning organs. Humans were to man these, minimize the ‘Predator’s’ dependency on its own means and maximize its gains. In a way this would offer future entities growing in the Milky Way a chance to escape.\n\nAnd, of course, their own homes! The World Ships that had ALMOST seen them to safety, or to a conflagrating death that could have, COULD HAVE, harmed the monster now oppressing them. They were either fakes, or the real deal, but it hardly mattered. They were their homes and, as it was proven, they weren’t immune to wear and tear, no matter if biological or just mechanical.\n\nYet, above all these, there was ONE task the ‘Predator’ promoted.\n\nBreeding.\n\nTons and tons of breeding.\n\nWhich, admittedly, could be considered perfectly fine: Change the people serving under you to seek more relief with one another AND make new slaves.\n\nUntil you also find out that *THIS* particular act had included further transformation to them.\n\nSome of these changes were in the ‘tame’ category; like enlarging genitalia until it became what most would define ‘hyper’ in proportions, or the acquisition of hyper ideal appearances. Changes that made people more ‘appealing’ to the eye and their brains, now geared towards seeking the most compatible and fertile companions possible alongside the feeling of satisfaction with your own body. A simple self satisfying change that made bodies easy to maintain and turn into an ‘ideal’ form.\n\nThen there were even more advanced ones that granted more arms, legs, a quadruped, centaur like body, and much more which included even certain more extreme changes… Some of these weren’t meant for reproduction, but for utility, yet many among these changed humans found that further changes to the original form aroused them and got them in the mood. It was not the worst discovery, but some found this new version of ‘beauty’ and what was ‘desirable’ as, shall we say, worrying.\n\nBut nothing, absolutely nothing, could prepare a normal human mind to accept some of the ‘incredible’ changes that the ‘Predator’ found no problem with. In fact the ‘Predator’ was greatly pleased with these modifications and sought to ensure they became a mainstay in all its ‘helpers’.\n\nRemember those pods that had two people inside?\n\nJust imagine how they shocked people when those two became one.\n\nTwo heads, double the genitalia, double the needs, desires, confusion and everything else.\n\nOr how about discovering that you, as a person, now felt like you absolutely *NEEDED* to become a different subspecies? Perhaps finding out the opposite? That you DESIRED to make someone else of your own subspecies? That led to the discovery of just how easily a human could be repurposed.\n\nLiterally.\n\nAbsorb someone through your breasts, member, pussy, anus or even eating them altogether and you get guaranteed future children of a particular kind. A gruesome, disgusting view to many, almost everyone, in the past. Something left to the fantasies of a few… Now a very real reality in which the material acquired would be repurposed into semen or eggs, then either injected in the desired subspecies if possible, or have the desired subspecies breed the consumer. That way the person was born anew with the desired species and abilities.\n\n… Plus probably a few hundred sisters/brothers/daughters/sons/clones.\n\nFamily trees could get very complicated.\n\nWhy, you could even make it WORSE still. How? Simple! All those pregnancies, normal or those ‘new’ ones with a more robust ‘donation’? You cannot carry them to term, oh no. Because WHY WOULD YOU? Instead, a pregnancy quickly grows until the baby (or babies) inside start to resemble not children, but adults. On average a pregnancy could last a month at most before anyone pregnant would need to visit a Cloning Center to have their children transferred into one of the pods so the rest of the ‘pregnancy’ can be carried out normally. Though now ‘normally’ meant that every pregnancy, once transferred, would quickly develop into a full formed adult.\n\nNot only had the creature enslaved and transformed all of Humanity: Reproduction without its input was now impossible. With every Cloning Center intrinsically connected to the ‘Predator’, more than any other part of the World Ships within its body, every new human born, no matter how, no matter the subspecies, no matter the desire of its parents, would be part of the ‘Predator’ one way or another.\n\nAnd yet the desire to breed, multiply and expand within the monster’s body made the idea no less appealing.\n\nThat is if we ignore the hunger that came with it. A species wide desire, compulsion even, to consume danger. It could mean the entities outside of the World Ships, endangering everyone; to feed them to the ‘Predator’ or process them themselves. But far more worryingly was the hunger for those that could ‘break the rules’: Murderers, traitors, those that could sabotage their homes… Rare as they could be, for death was a hard thing to achieve and most wouldn’t dare damage the World Ship or their communities, there was this ‘inkling’, this ‘thought’, of it being possible. Such a thought left everyone a feeling of hate, of sacrilege and hunger. And for those whose mind was at its limit? The desire to try, or even do, such damage could grow to the limit until it happened.\n\nOnly one punishment came to mind: Not prison, not physical or menial punishment, no… Consumption.\n\nDisgustingly gruesome, complicated, horrible and erotic. All of it falling under the same umbrella as humanity found out that THIS kind of thing was now… hot. It all held a strange allure that threw humans off, but they couldn’t do a thing about it.\n\nMost people wanted it. They wanted ALL their imagination could conjure.\n\nMost people found it disturbing, if nothing else.\n\nTheir minds had been so warped that many found it troublesome that they weren’t going insane. Many even found this change so hard to deal with, more so with their modified minds trying to force them to be okay with everything, that they just snapped and ‘disconnected’, as it were. They all knew this was not wrong, because that would be too kind. But there was no way to truly be repulsed towards it all.\n\nHumanity was turned into everything that the ‘Predator’ wanted, and those whose minds ‘checked out’, were turned into ever laboring ‘Drones’: Bodies that had their face erased, that still held the mind within, dormant and unaware of what was going on, and that did the will of the ‘Predator’ with even less objections than the recently made slave race.\n\nThis was not a story in which the good guy wins. This is a story in which the monster gets all it wants in the end.\n\nAnd yet, the victims all have so many stories to tell of their own and, in time, they will all adapt and overcome. It was not a question of them doing, it was a question of how long it would take. Humanity had, despite their best attempt at the end, survived, and they would remain alive. Some would dream of the day they would escape this new ‘world’, others would fantasize with the opportunities presented to them, while others only wanted to make a ‘normal’ and, hopefully, ‘less dangerous’ life inside the massive monster that had claimed them.\n\nMany hopes, many grievances, but in the end they had a new home and a name for it.\n\nAnd if the ‘Predator’ didn’t like it?\n\nWell, it could go to Hell. The thing wanted Humanity as its thralls? Well, it got Humanity, with all the baggage attached. One part of which was how they couldn’t give any less of a shit about what you thought with certain things. The ‘Predator’ could all but own them, but they would still play by their own rules in some regards, and no amount of coercing would stop them. The ‘Predator’ knew this, and even the monstrosity had to relent here and there.\n\nWhat name did they give this space between spaces, this cell that was a monster? Oh, a fitting one, considering what the ‘Predator’ had done to them all.\n\nThe name of this new ‘world’ was fitting, both for what it was, that of a huge space within spaces, and the debauchery the monster itself had filled Humanity with. Beyond duty, violence and danger, this was a titanic playground of sex and desire, where morality held little power.\n\nSo, with that said, the name with which Humanity as a whole christened their new home fit as close to perfectly as it could:\n\nSpatium Sperma.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Backstory, or ‘What Came Before’


Welcome, travelers. You may have come to hear of a particular story, one that begins ten years after everything is over. But to understand how we got there and why,  one must start from the beginning.

So let me first tell you of the age known as ‘What Came Before’. A long story for most, but the prize of knowledge is, if nothing else, time.

This universe, or at least the Milky Way, changed in the year 2058: The year of ‘revelations’, as it was called.

For humanity this year was a wakeup call that many did not take well. It was not a willing one, for governments all over Earth had done much to impede it, for good reason, despite the many self-serving desires behind many of those actions. Discovering the truth too soon would have doomed everything, even doing so at the right time was incredibly painful. And the cost of keeping it contained? Lives, countless of them.

Wars had started to hide this fact.

Suffering was artificially spread to impede its discovery.

Illnesses, death and ignorance was enforced in societies close to a true enlightenment.

Why?

Because what humans call the ‘void of space’, what we think is ‘dead’, is, in fact, very much alive.

And it was trying to eat us.

It did not matter what came before, because from the early 2040s to the late 2050s, no matter who was in power, nor where it was, death and misery accompanied the world. It was a horrible, oppressive picture where materials, food and simple comforts were all but taken away from the populace. Many thought every world power was doing this out of their own selfish desires, that politicians, kings and despots all were in accordance. It is as if the old tales of the rich and the powerful seeing those beneath them as insects were no longer stereotypes and exaggerations from those angry and in lesser positions, and instead true. The ones in power were making everyone miserable, denying them basic care and even worse. It was as if they were trying to return almost everyone to the middle ages, or worse.

The truth was, if possible, even worse. Was it even more selfish than initially thought? No, on the contrary, though it did not mean no one had done this for their own gain. In fact there were many that took advantage of this misery to line their own pockets. But, much as many would have wanted to call them monsters, there was a good reason for this cruelty.

It was a sad tale, one with reason to exist… but having reasons for doing this or doing that does not mean it all can be forgiven. And this? This all had tens of thousands, MILLIONS, dying. Some took their own life, many more died from neglect, wars and other means.

Yet all had a reason to be, and future generations would understand.

They would also come to regret the hastiness of human nature and their desire for retribution.

Not like it mattered to the victims, to the present lives impacted by it all, to those that would not live to see the repercussions of their actions. There was no pleading when the time came, though, not from those that did it with no real malice. Even then, all of them, from the most noble, albeit cruel, to the most rotten and willing person in power, had a proper ending.

It was a lesson: Pain can sometimes lessen, but not all pain can be forgiven.

And we all know, no matter what the ‘virtuous’ say, that forgiveness is hardly a natural word in the human vocabulary.

Of those who acted and brought justice? Some did it out of grief, loss and pure rage. Others were so broken that they just went along with whatever was asked of them. A good number just wanted an escapegoat, while others saw retribution as just, no matter the outcome of the actions of those that had starved the world with the intent to bring hope in the future at the cost of their own souls.

What about the guilty? Many, most of them in fact, did what they did knowing they, and likely those close to them, would one day be erased in one way or another, but with full knowledge that doing ‘good’ in the moment would spell doom in the future, not just for them, but for everyone. Others wanted outright power now, and they hoped things would not escalate until they were out of the picture. If they did ‘good’? Fine. If not? Just as well.

In the end it hardly mattered if you had suffered or if you were those in control of it all. The many doubts and apprehensions of what would happen when everything was revealed, when everything stopped being ‘what ifs’ and instead turned into reality.

Fear.

Chaos.

Riots.

Even more death.

And yet, the year 2058 marked the Year 1 of the Galactic Era. It marked the day when the limit of patience had been found and when an explanation could not be pushed back any longer. Civil unrest was about to explode, and with it would come full ruin, no matter who ‘won’. Thus, a decision was made.

The day the 2058 hit, they came. Aliens. Or, at the very least, their robotic proxies.

‘Vigiles’, or so they were named; a translation of the name given to automated bodies and recon craft designed by species outside of the Milky Way. For countless eons they had watched over the Milky Way and all life it had grown. Many times they had tried to help directly, while other instances had them wait as the collective just watched. In the beginning they made incredible mistakes, cutting down any chances of survival. Incredible advancements meant little when a situation was new and experience was scarce. And after they learned? The many species that created these automatons did their best to lend aid or, at the very least, they tried to learn.

Success was… sparse. And that was being generous.

But success with what? Simple: Escaping the Milky Way.

Escaping? The message, sent all over the world, made humanity wonder. Why would they need to escape? The answer came, and it was shocking: Because something was about to devour it again, as it had done so many times the Vigiles’ masters could simply not count them.

The revelation they brought was swift and the furthest it could be from sweet: All humanity knew was, in a way, fabricated. Either by the government with aid from the Vigiles themselves, or a perfect fabrication by the aliens alone. There were truths in what humanity knew, yes, but in the end it was a story, one of many,  made to keep any species, like Humans, from discovering the truth and forcing one of the two more common outcomes that took place once the truth and their predicaments were made obvious.

One of said outcomes was simple, if final and gruesome: Self-destruction. The revelation easily made many go mad, and many others suffered permanently afterwards as they found out just how small they truly were. Self deletion of the whole species did not take place, with humanity that is, but a good number of sapient and very intelligent species had opted for the easy way out. In some cases this had meant the literal destruction of their whole world, sometimes even their whole star system if they had the technology and inclination for such a final solution.

Comparatively, the alternative ending, the ‘neutral’ one, was more gruesome. The second possibility was that humanity would either ignore the warning, or think they could survive what was out there. Ludicrous. Why? Because there was a massive, galaxy wide entity that was about to devour the Milky Way. It wouldn’t be soon, it wouldn’t be the first time, but it would happen, as it had done so many times before. To this thing humanity was but a snack, and knowing that a whole species, that billions [possible trillions, if humanity expanded after the revelation] of souls would just turn out to mean an afternoon snack for a beast of indescribable size, could easily invoke dread or a berserker push ahead to try and fight it while ignoring the Vigiles for their perceived treachery. This, in turn, would simply mean the whole species would be devoured.

Of course there was the third option of accepting the Vigiles’ word and their help. That said, it was never a clean process een when that happened. There was too much hurt and mistrust, simply because the Vigiles needed the species to be ignorant for as long as possible. And the pain forced upon humanity for so long? Their doing, for humanity’s own good.

To put it kindly: The news wasn't taken well.

A literal galaxy devouring entity? That just *barely* any knowledge of the galaxy, surface level as it was, was false? Oh, that was PERFECT. But it got worse: Learning that aliens had indeed been visiting Earth regularly and had aided in guiding the many conflicts, more so in modern times, to push back knowledge and hoard resources? Just the best news, you know? So of course it all went as expected. After all, before all of this was revealed? Earth had turned into a powder keg. But with this information and confirmation of all this suffering being created, being guided, that it was ON PURPOSE? It made that powder keg catch fire. And what does a powderkeg do when on fire?

Explode.

Humanity was not unique in this. Many, in fact MOST, species would react in anger. It was a sad reality, just like what the Vigiles needed to do to keep any nascent species from self-destructing, but it was still a reality that had to be accepted.

And yes, humanity DID explode in rage.

This was, as said, expected. Yet, as violence threatened to spread the Vigiles did not leave, they watched. The species behind those ancient, soulless automatons, forced themselves to do as they had done since they undertook this task: They watched the result of their actions and engraved the suffering into their minds. There was no reward for this task, only scorn and suffering. They had warned those in power of what could happen, what *HAD* happened in many cases before. That this sacrifice would start and would end up with bloodseed.

There was no happy ending for anyone that day. There could have been nothing other than a short lived madness and rivers of blood.

It was always the same. And there was always a reason for it. This brutality, this massacre, this punishment, insanity. All of it made the species the Vigiles were trying to help spend their energy with those they thought had wronged them, instead of in self destruction or quick attempts at creating some failure of an escape plan.

Does the idea disgust you? It disgusted the Vigiles. It revolted them. But so many times they had tried to do this ‘perfectly’; to help species without binding them through lies, manipulations and pain. The result: It *NEVER* worked. Without any suffering, without such hardships, the species that came before would be unable to take this danger seriously, nor accept the many sacrifices that would be required. Blood, tears, anger and undying determination were needed.

Despite this all, despite knowing it was necessary, not all aliens behind the Vigiles could stomach it. Many left, but the majority remained. They were used to this cycle, yes, but being ‘used’ to it didn’t mean it was easy. The Vigiles always stopped it before blood could form a sea of blood, even if there were always casualties. In fact, in their hope, the Vigiles always wished for the species they cared for to regain control before ANY blood was spilled, but that was… rare.

In fact it was painfully rare, and sometimes even worse. Preparation, a chance at success, almost always came with a price tag attached, and blood was not cheap. And if violence didn’t take the reins for at least a moment? It usually meant a ticking time bomb was hidden somewhere.

No, disgusting and unnecessary as it felt, the anger had to be spent. By now the Vigiles knew when to stop it, but it had to take place.

Failure was a common word within the alien group. It always felt as if they had messed up, no matter how many times they did this. And yet, whether they considered they had failed again, or that they were doing their best, the Vigiles tried to help. Experience was plentiful, sad as it was, and resignation when words did not work went hand in hand with patience. Once sanity reigned again, once humanity demanded ALL they could give, the Vigiles did. Humanity deserved nothing less, and in fact much more.

Horrible as their manipulation was, the Vigiles had a very good reason. The entity, the creature they had come to call the ‘Predator’, had a cycle, a ‘feeding frenzy’ timer, so to speak. Until it began, the entity would sleep, or at least pay little attention to the comings and goings within its domain. But once it started? It would not rest until the galaxy was barren again, at least for a time.

The creature had certain needs, thus it had a pattern. It waits, ‘sleeps’, for a long, long time as a galaxy matures, preferably until truly intelligent life develops. Then the entity ‘wakes’, just enough to follow the species’ development, and allows for this life to expand, consume and refine materials. Once this reaches a point it deems acceptable? The entity truly stirs and, after a time, it engulfs the galaxy, devours all organic materials and advanced compounds, then leaves behind its ‘refuse’; simple materials in abundance, both mineral and biological. A simple process that kept the monster fed as if it farmed crops and cattle, but on a galactic scale.

But what did it mean for humanity? Simple: The species had been getting closer and closer to the point of awakening the monster for decades. Had their leaders not implemented draconic measures, someone would have crossed the line. If humanity had been allowed to mature at a normal pace? Then their time would already be ticking or, at worst, the monster would’ve seen them to be ‘unfulfilling’ and decided to feast early to sate its needs as best as it could.

The ‘Predator’ was patient after all, more so when compared to humans, but that patience was not eternal. And when hunger gnaws at you, patience dies.

The monster waits for life to grow, eats, then seeds everything again. However, as cycles of this feeding go by, its hunger grows. Time and time again it speeds the process, allowing for less of the galaxy to recover. It was, over time, draining the life of the galaxy as a whole and making the ‘Predator’ see less and less species as ‘worthy’ of taking its time if they made a single misstep once it became attentive.

This monster was a virus. A parasite. The galaxy? The Milky Way? It was just a cell inside a living body. The universe? Said body: A lifeform so large that the Milky Way was microscopic in scale, just as a blood cell would be for a human.

Humanity and every alien living within this universe were little more than guests in a massive body that had a cycle that couldn’t be broken. And that monster eating it all? Just part of said constant cycle. By all intents and purposes the Vigiles, a conglomeration of species so advanced that humanity was nothing but a child in comparison, could do absolutely nothing to even harm the ‘Predator’, so strong was its presence in this universal cycle.

And while the cycle couldn’t be broken, it could be altered.

The time it took for the ‘Predator’ to act was always shrinking, yes. The creature did not leave enough to consider the ‘transaction’ a 1:1 exchange, it never did and it never would. Every time it fed, the Milky Way grew smaller. Every time it retreated to rest, it left less materials in every world. And every time it reset, its hunger became more voracious as the ‘Predator’ grew in size. It all fed this vicious cycle. That much humanity had been told.

And, again, the Vigiles reiterated one particular point: One day the ‘Predator’ would consume it all.

One day it would leave with all it had devoured, to find a new home… Or perhaps a different entity would take it down before the galaxy died. There were thousands, millions, of possibilities. Yet none of them had humanity, or even the Vigiles, being the cause of the monster’s demise or decision to move away. That was one thing they could not alter at all.

But that was immaterial. What the Vigiles wanted humanity to understand was one simple, humble, grotesque truth: The human species would not be its last prey. In fact they could be no prey at all, if they managed to escape its clutches.

Chances were minimal, and they grew even more dire every time the ‘Predator’ fed. But survival WAS guaranteed, within a margin that is. The Vigiles made it clear that yes: Humanity could create means to escape, but they needed to be ‘quick’, within galactic standards that is. That was the best outcome, yet there was another.

They could fail this escape and the entity would still ‘allow them to serve it’.

Humanity as a whole did not like this, no other species had. The Vigiles understood, thus focusing first on the better outcome, although they WOULD share the alternative. Again, humanity deserved this much, even if they did not want to hear it all.

First, a clarification: To speed up the process of escape, or at least the chance for it, humanity had been made to suffer. Earth’s resources had been gathered, hoarded, then used to perfect certain technologies meant to give them all a chance. Although the means had been unscrupulous at best, this had been a tried and true way with many species that evolved like humans did: Social, but individualistic, hard to control, manage and guide, but also laser focused when enough pressure is applied.

Simply put? Humanity needed a big enough stick to be threatened with, then a juicy carrot that would not make them forget, just push them in the right direction. Again, a method that humanity was not the sole recipient of, and one the Vigiles quickly admitted to hate, but, as it turned out, it was one of the most used because most species that evolved shared far too many similarities. There were indeed uniqueness to each species, and some were so alien that few others could understand them, but individuality was, by and large, one of the most common factors in many species which, in turn, meant that many of them would not take guidance without brute forcing it.

That sordid bit of trivia shared, the Vigiles told humanity that the point where the ‘Predator’ became ‘active’ was when one particular technology was put to use by any advanced species: Terraforming. This technology meant the species would mine, exploit and refine any and all worlds it could get. That, in essence, was what the ‘Predator’ wanted and expected, and the lack of it, or the lack of its implementation, would make the entity act earlier.

It was, as the Vigiles called it, its dinner bell, one way or another.

Governments and nations all over the world had been developing, perfecting and protecting this technology since the late XX century. But unlike what many movies and books tell you, such developments are time consuming and resource intensive. You cannot have them with the snap of your fingers and make them ready because ‘it has to be’. No, it took decades of suffering for it to become a real thing and, as it turns out, even advanced species like those of the Vigiles admitted that some planets could take far too long to be terraformed, no matter how refined the means were.

They had made the world bleed and suffer to keep humanity from truly reaching the stars. Why? Because once it was done, once they began turning a different plane into an habitable one, the dinner bell rang at last. And it was this first step, this first expansion, that was crucial because, as soon as that bell echoed across the stars, it would NEVER stop, not until the ‘Predator’ had its fill.

So now humanity had to be fast and decisive, they had to pick their targets, stick to them and bleed for every next step. The involvement of the Vigiles could be a trigger itself, that is why they employed such scummy tactics and tried to limit their involvement. With their presence revealed, time was now of the essence. Now there were two possibilities: Either the Vigiles’ appearance would rouse the beast, or humanity’s desire to touch the stars, either through their need for it or simple lust for what lied beyond, would finally alert the monster. Both meant that time was now ticking, and it hardly mattered which one had done it.

However, before humanity united in action, an unasked question was answered: Why didn’t the Vigiles send ‘proper’ help? Or even get them out? This was asked with anger, disgust and, in some cases, regret as the blood began to dry on Earth. But it was a valid question all the same. After all, the Vigiles had, in the end, shown themselves.

The answer, it turns out, was not exactly as simple as ‘We didn’t want to’ or ‘We couldn’t’.

Because the ‘Predator’, while it was the equivalent of a virus, at least when compared to the Universal Entity it parasitized, it was also monstrously big, ancient beyond measure and cunning to the point of easily thwarting whole galaxies’ worth of plans. Not only that: Traveling between the stars was done through two means. The first was known as Hyper Space Folding (Or just Folding), while the later was ‘Dimensional Jumping’.

Folding was used within galactic bodies, and usually between specific rifts in space away from most gravitational fields such as planets or suns. These Hyperspace Lanes connected solar systems and could number between one to one dozen inside a singular system. Convenient and safe, the ‘Predator’ had no control over them. But, at the same time, these Hyperspace Lanes could not form in a ‘weightless’ area, thus dead space, with no stars or planets. That meant that Folding could not join two galaxies together: The space was just too great, its usage limited. Being the ‘safest’ of the two methods also meant it had far too many limitations.

Even then, if desperate enough to jump between galaxies, trying such a traversing method could not form an exit point, instead dispersing the jumper across millions of lightyears of nothingness as the ‘tunnel’ they traveled through crushed them in uncontrollable ways, spitting them out every which way. As such, while they never appeared close to these celestial bodies, the lanes NEEDED said bodies to exist and ‘deliver’ anyone traveling through them safely. It was no lie to say that, the day the galaxy ended, so too would the hyperspace lanes, marking the complete and true end of the Milky Way.

In other words? Folding was the easy way to travel, but it would not help escape the ‘Predator’s’ hunger. Trying to do so would turn you into space dust at best, if any part of you was ever found.

Dimensional Jumps though… Those could help.

As you may have imagined, considering the Vigiles hadn’t done so to save species before, jumping between dimensions wasn’t easy. Every species had a makeup that had to be considered in many ways; what they ate, what they breathed, how they reproduced, their basic compounds, etc… The slightest miscalculation could create faulty transitions between the space between spaces, and turn what should be a very fast, and relatively ‘simple’ process into a catastrophic cascade failure that would leave traces of the occupants, and sometimes their ship, between dimensional folds.

It didn’t help that the real body of the ‘Predator’ was nested in one of those dimensional spaces. From an unseen danger to a physical creature that could grab you with a simple thought, any ‘mistake’ that wouldn’t end your life could just as easily make you a noticeable and very attractive prey for the massive monster. Hungering in the space between dimensions, like an unseen, lurking predator, the monster’s ever resting body caught whatever tried to cross that way if it ever sensed new prey, no matter how awake or asleep it was.

It was this ability, the capability of making something vast, like the space between two galaxies, or the monstrous form of the ‘Predator’, appear small that allowed for the Dimensional Jump to be the only escape. But the very real, and very hungry intelligence of the ‘Predator’, and the many possible combinations of means to use for the drives that would allow for Dimensional Jumps, meant that very complex, advanced, and personal tests would need to be taken would require technology advanced enough to spark the monster’s attention. Not because of its permanent attention itself, but because the creature was intimately familiar with this technology.

As the Vigiles explained, and as everyone expected, Dimensional jumping took very specific technology. Thanks to its specifications it could be modified in a nearly infinite number of ways to make each one ‘distinct enough’, with a handful of them being specific for every species in existence. The principles were the same every time, that much was true. Their application? Not so much thanks to key differences. However its partial malleability was what offered a chance, and a problem.

Through its ‘moldability’ there were MANY ways a Jump Engine could be created, yet to make things ‘simple’ all species behind the Vigiles had a very uniform design as the base. A ‘standard’ model, as it were, with easily interchangeable specifics to serve the Vigiles’ many species with a relatively quick refitting process if it was ever necessary to do so. That translated to a nearly ‘universal’ design within the Vigiles’ group, far as the technology was concerned.

Here is the problem with such a thing: That design, and its operation, was known by the ‘Predator’.

Worse than that: With the information the ‘Predator’ had, it could identify almost any standard modification created by the Vigiles’ owners, or get close enough to make any rescue operation dangerous at best and impossible at worst. Every time the Vigiles sent a standard design, they were caught. And if it was another variant of the design that the ‘Predator’ could intercept? It did so, even when what was sent was just another ship full of robotic proxies that it would feel useless, even for nourishment purposes. Thus the Vigiles rarely ever risked discovery any more than they were doing now by using customized, non organic friendly Jump Engines that would NOT support any life form aboard the ship. Such models seemed to be ‘undetectable’, as the ships were cleared of anything organic beforehand and were only caught by accident.

In fact, some of the earlier attempts that turned into catastrophic failures had many of the Vigiles’ ships eaten by the ‘Predator’. When the Vigiles first found out about the truth of the universe, how it was alive, how it was hungry, how it was infested. Back then the collective of species was much smaller and much more daring. They tried to help as if it was their divine right: To uplift as many species, to guide them, to become GODS. There was less unity and a lot of friction between all of them, so what was now a united front had once been a disorganized glory rush that did them no favor, much less when they found such a mighty monster taking an interest in their escapades.

Being taken by the ‘Predator’ was a humbling and brutal experience.

This gruesome revelation came along with another: the creature was a master of biology and bioengineering. After it had absorbed many of the alien species behind the Vigiles, it had drained their minds and knowledge. It hardly cared about creatures that had advanced enough to fight its control until their last breath, but it was hungry for a level of understanding. This aggressive takeover taught it how to ‘talk’ in ways that ‘simpler’ minds could understand, their needs, their abilities, their… usefulness. In a way this blunder gave every species within the ‘Predator’ a chance, but it also revealed all the creature needed to know about Jump Engines used by ‘lesser’ entities than itself.

In a way, the ‘Predator’ found this discovery not an annoyance, or a danger for its sustenance, but as possibilities for its own growth.

Hungry and greedy for more, it had allowed a few attempts to bring ships and resources, only to attack and devour everything and everyone afterwards when it pleased. After a few attempts at saving new species that had been born in the Milky Way, after thousands of aliens from other galaxies had been taken, the Vigiles finally admitted it to themselves: They were not gods, and this creature could, with a simple thought, end everyone that was within its control.

This wasn’t just humiliation: This was a humbling experience for a superpower spanning various galaxies that had tried to make it look like it was tougher and mightier than it was. A ‘simple’ cell, a virus, had taken the lives of trillions, perhaps quadrillions, of different sentients during their first foray into its depths. They had played with fire, lost, and then made the fire stronger.

Most would have done very, very dumb things after this. Attempts at revenge. Plots to ‘harm’ the ‘Predator’. Perhaps a way to destroy its food source out of spite.

The group that would create the Vigiles did nothing of the sort. They knew all of those choices would bring more harm than good, and they had already lost far more than they would ever admit.

Instead, they found purpose. A self inflicted one, but it came to them as a saving grace.

The Vigiles were formed. All species taking part hardened themselves; they refused to risk more of their own lives and the lives of others, but they knew open attempts to weaken the ‘Predator’ or save others would meet the same fate as the ones before. Slow, painful and heart wrenching as it was, they opted for the one way they could, perhaps, do something: Watch, learn, test and prepare future species to try and attempt their own escape. The Vigiles were machines capable of coming and going, of watching from the sidelines, of guiding and helping.   Their cost? Having to see, and even be part of, so many atrocities as were needed to keep civilizations going at a steady pace until they were ready to blitz through the last stages of development.

Success was rare, but not impossible.

More often than not drone ships and Vigiles were lost.

Sometimes the plans didn’t work out; the species grew too slow to satisfy the ‘Predator’, sometimes one of the Vigiles went rogue and helped develop too fast, making the ‘Predator’ intervene. A few times, through benevolence and hopes for the best, the Vigiles did as they mentioned: No interference, which meant civilizations usually developed peacefully.

They died without the ‘Predator’ even thinking of giving them any use beyond ‘food’.

Despite the constant pain all these attempts created, the Vigiles kept at it.

Of course, humanity had seen how they ‘helped’, and this was clearly thrown back to their face: Starvation. Repression. Wars. Sickness. Artificial ways to force populations to lower themselves when too high, as a greater population created many bright minds. Sometimes they even forced population booms for famine, scarcity and xenophobia between groups to explode and take care of the possible problem too.

The Vigiles were ‘monsters’ to humanity, no matter what opportunities they brought and what help they offered.

Cruel, monstrous or what have you, they also hadn’t lied: Humanity came with an expiration date, no matter what they did now.

The ‘Predator’ had a limit when it came to outside influence. That is why the Vigiles mentioned this late appearance being *perhaps* not enough to arouse the monster’s interest. When ‘help’ became ‘too much help’, the ‘Predator’ ignored its own future safety and hunted down every sapient species in the galaxy. It went so far as to force its senses and hunt the Vigiles’ ships, expending resources in a brutal vendetta.

While some would call the ‘Predator’ *JUST* a virus, no matter how big or how ‘smart’ it was, they were mistaken. Such reaction brought knowledge and a further reinforcement of what the monster wanted to state in no uncertain terms: All in the Milky Way is mine.

It was a smart entity, a creature, a living thing.

And it did not care about a game when it was ‘rigged’.

Whether you consider it inhumane to gamble whole galaxies’ worth of life a ‘game’ or something far more heinous, that is inconsequential.

However, the ‘Predator’ had ‘morals’. Or perhaps ‘rules’ would be a better word. It had a simple way of doing things.

Be it as food or servants, the ‘Predator’ would adapt everything into its being when it fed. If prey escaped through its own methods? It would learn and become even better. If said prey was smart enough to ALMOST escape? Then the ‘Predator’ considered said prey smart enough to become part of itself.

Do not misunderstand: The ‘Predator’ was not cruel, nor was it nice. The ‘Predator’ just *WAS*. This was a cycle, and whatever it ingested, devoured or adapted, it would not ‘care’ for it. It would rule over its body, over its territory and over the entities it acquired. It would lay rules, duties and even allow dissent and rebellion, but ultimately all within itself served the ‘Predator’. And if you did not serve enough? Becoming nutrients was always an option.

Whether it was evil, a form of playing ‘god’, or just its own, indecipherable, way of doing things, was unknown.

Most just accepted that this *WAS*, and that is all there was to it.

All the Vigiles could do was to tell humanity of what they knew. Whether humanity thought it fair, cruel, or something else, was completely inconsequential. Facts were facts, and the facts were simple: The Vigiles had done all they could to offer humanity a chance, just as they had done with countless others before. Blood soaked and cruelly delivered or not, it was all they could do without outright sentencing them to either slavery or death. They offered a chance, and chances did not come cheap anywhere in the universe.

With all that delivered, the Vigiles allowed humanity a simple thing: They had a year of deliberation.

Many things were said after that ‘gesture’. But what could be done? Time was precious beyond belief, and a year to mourn the dead, diggest their own actions and ponder what the species as a whole would do, was far more than they probably could afford. Every second alive now was borrowed time that would come back with interest piled on, and even knowing this much was true did nothing to quell many protests and an unending flood of anger mixed with resignation.

Above all else, this wasn’t up for debate. The Vigiles prompted everyone across the world to direct their energies towards the daunting process that was the singular, most important decision their whole species would ever have to make. They would depart now, and only come back to offer a final push, or put the world to sleep. Whatever they choose, the Vigiles would not interfere more than once.

After that? It would depend exclusively on how humanity fared.

Begrudgingly, still angry and with little hope at first, humanity took a long breath. Then, they made a choice. They didn’t have many to pick from, and it wasn’t a unanimous vote, but humanity took one path that day.

Starting from the moment the Vigiles left, the same day of the new year, the same day the Galactic Era began, would be the day of communion. Every nation would converge. The families of the leaders and their allies that brutalized their people, for good or ill, would be left to humanity’s mercies, mercies that would see them live… but not forget. That was trouble for the future, as many dangers and tribulations were left in the NOW and HERE, starting with the simple question of ‘What do we do now?’.

As a whole, they had decided not to die off. Some were resigned to failure, but many wished to try.

So this left the one clear option: Take to the stars, focus all their energy on expansion, research and resource accumulation while increasing their numbers and perfecting their bodies. It quickly became obvious that humanity, as it was now, would not be enough. Many old barriers placed for security, REAL security, were demolished within months and many forbidden paths were given a pass. Everything would remain as ethical as possible, but at this point, knowing the galaxy WOULD die, a certain level of moral flexibility was not so much ‘encouraged’ as it was absolutely NEEDED.

The Vigiles could not fault this line of thought, and they would tell humans as much when they next visited and were informed of the species’ choices. As far as the Vigiles were concerned, it was a simple choice: Better to die free, without pain and fear, than to be devoured by a massive monster. And freedom was, as human history had proven time and time again, something that has a cost.

In a way almost all humans thought that the Vigiles had done their best, at least once they had time to cool down. Even their world wide euthanasia offer was seen as somewhat… kind. Cold, but kind.

There were so many projects that were brought to light by those related to the Vigiles’ plan to contain humanity’s natural desire to expand, that it was soon seen just how close many people, even in centuries past, had been to triggering the ‘Predator’s’ interest in them. A premature jumpstart to the monster’s hunger, no doubt, more so considering there were no natural means for humanity to have developed as fast as the creature would have wanted its next ‘feast’ to be. The most generous calculations the leading experts could come up with, after a year of deliberation and data compilation, was this: Humanity would’ve been made part of the ‘Predator’s’ biomass during the late 80s or 90s if the Vigiles hadn’t interfered, and this was a very ‘generous’ time frame.

So many plans, so many ideas, all of them  put on ice because all of them required hundreds upon hundreds of years to implement if things had been handled with ‘velvet gloves’. With a more expeditious, and admittedly reckless, approach? The time frames could be cut immensely. There were risks, sure, but this rapid development would at least please the ‘Predator’ enough to allow humanity to forge a path forward for thousands of years.

Not a great prospect, true. But what was the alternative? Worldwide eradication?

Either anger at the idea, disgust, or simple defiance against the Vigiles’ manipulation, well intended or not, won the day. Humanity would survive, and it would fight.

But that left a problem for later, one that began brewing as the dust settled and humanity got ready for the Vigiles’ return.

With most of the political leaders, and those connected to them, put to the sword, humanity thought it could ponder in peace. Few ever looked back and wondered if the many had been justified in destroying the few. Yes, said few had done them dirty in so many ways, many of whom had enjoyed their actions or profited from the cruelty. Yet, in the end, they had done what was necessary.

Had humanity been right in their anger, thus their fear?

Or would resentment be born, fight on, and act up when least expected?

The answer was simple, and humanity was a species of persistence hunters. Many didn’t even think of this, considering the many crises that were yet to come, but those that had just been ‘wronged’ had resentment that would burn bright for a long while.

So many things done had been beyond excessive, yet at the same time barely enough. Humanity could see it now, and many of those in charge had been part of a small but sturdy web of connected families that would strengthen their ties even more now. Most of them were seen as undesirables now, but the idea of getting rid of them was as unpalatable as keeping them around, so these once proud families and their cronies were given ways to ‘be useful’, as every single person was forced to be now.

Demeaning, punishing, unjust.

Many of those from the ‘families’ saw it as nothing else but hate towards those that had to sacrifice their own humanity to save the whole. It was undeniable that many lived lavish lifestyles and were showered in money and power, but not all of those involved lacked empathy. Certain members of the families, many of which had been in charge of how to deal with things? Yes. It was impossible to deny, and they accepted it. But was it fair to make the survivors live a life of toil and suffering after all was said and done? Hadn’t they sacrificed enough to try and keep everyone alive?

No one answered their question, for they weren’t even allowed to ask.

There was no time for their own suffering to be acknowledged. The families were, at best, thousands in numbers, tens of thousands perhaps.

Meanwhile, as the decisions were being made and humanity was slowly herded towards accepting just how hectic and dire every action would have to be from now on, whole nations came to end. Not in lives, but in borders and ideals. And they weren’t alone; religions, ideologies, political affiliations and more. There was no time to fight on such grounds anymore, and while many ‘nations’ would remain, in a sense, the whole of Earth quickly divided itself into less than half a dozen, instead of the nearly two hundred that had once existed not long ago.

Determination grew hope.

But it also grew resentment.

Hope created a path forward.

Yet also fabricated blindspots.

In a world of nearly eight billion human souls, less than a million huddled together, looked at what was to happen, and did not look on with hope for survival. They eyed the future as a mere chance to break everything down in revenge.

So, as the dust settled, a few large nations remained. Tasks were issued. Objectives were planned. A fixation was found.

First: Sol System.

Then: As much of the galaxy as they could take.

And, in a dark recess of humanity’s soul, a smaller voice proclaimed: Blood for blood when they least expect it.

The good and the bad were largely ignored by the Vigiles when they returned. There was only the task: Survival had been chosen, so there would be no more interruptions, no more delays or deviations. After one year went by it was time to grow and play the long game.

And so came millenia of work, of expansion and constant development.

For five thousand six hundred and sixty years the humans toiled away. From system to system, from discovery to discovery, problem to problem and decision to decision, humanity worked. Quadrillions of human lives all fit within the Milky Way by the end of it and, sadly, most of them knew they would never see the ‘world of tomorrow’, yet they all kept at it.

It would not be hard to guess, but not everyone took it well. Some did it with hope for the future. Others with steel like resolve for what their bloodlines had sworn to do. But the constant drudgery took a toll even in the most determined.

From day one of the Galactic Era, there had been fights. No matter how dire the danger, there would ALWAYS be fights, disagreements and violence. In fact, with the end always drawing nearer and nearer, everyone knew that every new life added meant one more competitor when the time came. Some became extreme nihilists as the years went by, which usually marked another bout of drama and problems of various kinds.

Fights created danger, danger created death, and death created change. And, as it usually does, this all made for many great discoveries… Even if, in time, all these previous fights would lead to, as it usually happens, humanity shooting itself in the foot.

But, again, as it usually does, if it didn’t create problems directly, such competition and fights made for other developments.

Humanity’s needs and difficulties created a mastery, one not intended, but one that was welcomed and, as things would turn out, it would also become essential in the future.

Mastery of bioengineering technology. It surprised humanity as much as the Vigiles when it came almost as quickly, just a couple hundred years in time, as they mastered space. From the already practiced terraforming to curing every sickness, then to perfecting the human genetic code and, finally, the research into functional immortality, cybernetic implants and cosmetic upgrades. It was gradual, of course, but strangely fast… worryingly so in fact. Worries were smoothed over with the many applications they found, and humanity had reached its peak long before the time came for their jailer, the ‘Predator’, to hunt them down. All this knowledge took to mature, all it required was typical human aggression and its eternal companion; humanity’s will to live against all odds.

While this mastery’s origins were not glorious, merely an attempt to keep danger (and casualties) low. Conflict wasn’t as common at first, but it originally sparked between ideologies and nations that had either crumbled or lessened in importance. They all had been all but gone long before Mars began terraforming procedures, but over time their remnants chose to raise their voices and…

Well, we all know what happens when some voices find themselves unheard. Their end was neither happy nor glorious, much less pretty. All that came out of it was the beginning of something greater, at the cost of many lives.

Better healing, better care, better survival both in and out of Earth, in the void of space and, of course, other planets. Then came the toughening of the biological system, followed by the whole genetic code getting rid of many defects, mental deviancies and more. Finally? A near elimination of aging, a way to connect bioengineered and biomechanical replacements when even modern medicine could not heal maladies or wounds for whatever reason. After that? Cosmetic changes and beautification as well as genetic alterations for aesthetic modification; a way to keep themselves entertained and happy even when humans knew their time was limited.

Vanity had a way to worm its way into any situation. The galaxy could end at any day? Who cares if there is a new way to look beautiful coming out tomorrow. A superficial way to stave off panic, one of many when counted among every bit of entertainment, every design made for mindless fun and so on. After all, distractions were necessary, no matter their origin, or people would go crazy.

But vanity had nothing to do with the fear of death that pushed humanity to create the Cloning Centers: Facilities meant to be in constant contact with every single person in the galaxy. If the worst came to happen, the many satellites, relays and other means of transferring information would take the consciousness of a person, keep it safe for a short while, and then inject it back in a cloned body. It was a jarring process that was imperfect, but alongside medical procedures to elongate human life, made sure that ‘immortality’ was, while not guaranteed, close enough. This was a controversial technology that nearly created a rift, if not a downright war, but the things it offered, the security and the possibility to keep going even after death, was far too tempting for people that knew the end was approaching at a constant and unrelenting pace.

On top of that? Weapons, of course. Weapons, armor and, to an extent, things meant to exist within the ‘Predator’ if the end result was less than, say we say, optimal. Humanity hoped for the best, as it always did, but they also prepared for the worst. Weapons designed to damage cellular destruction. Armor prepared against acidic attacks from gigantic microbes. This all accompanied by many adaptations meant for life inside a living, breathing digestive system that could, at any time, hunger for humanity as a whole.

None of this had a chance of survival when the day finally came. They could be repurposed, of course; all this technology had been painstakingly made with redundancy after redundancy and many ways to be modified if needed. All of humanity knew that, even if they designed the best technologies, medical, weapons, armor or, of course, even starships, it would do nothing if things ended badly. But they made sure that, even if that did happen and if what they created was less than satisfactory, it all could be modified as quickly as possible the moment something that *worked* was found. So, as always: Prepare for everything to go FUBAR was a mantra humanity practiced religiously.

But there WAS something that could, COULD, get them to survive and be free. Or, at least, be ‘free’ in a sense. The one thing humanity could not mass produce and that housed the Jump Engines needed to get almost everyone out of this mess.

The titanic and artificially made planets: The World Ships.

The second greatest creation of humanity, one created with the idea of the Jump Engines in mind, and with a few nudges from the Vigiles themselves, all of it scaled up to humanity’s wild imagination and tastes. These massive monstrosities, the ‘Worldships’ were massive, at least Earth sized constructs on average. They were, in essence, what humanity would call ‘Home away from home’, and they were incredible creations to be sure. Slow to make, insane resource cost and able to hold billions of souls aboard: They were the ultimate life raft and multipurpose craft in humanity’s last intended voyage within the Milky Way.

Simply put, these vessels were literal artificially constructed worlds that could house billions upon billions of people within them. Their multipurpose origin gave many specialized designs; all of them had been created to become city centers designed for population generation, yes, but soon specialized designs came to be. Scientific worlds for research and development, military training facilities, fabrication worlds and more! All of the later designs were made with singular purposes meant to support one another. In essence these ships could simply create their own ‘systems’ if needed, although humanity hoped that would be needed. On top of that, only these ships would be fitted with Jump Engines, but those would be created with a particularity: A way to open a large enough rift for escort ships to fly alongside the titanic creations, as fitting a literal world full of guns on top of everything else was a level of extra cost and redundancy that humanity thought to be extreme.

These starships would be humanity’s bastion after their escape. They would be a cry for freedom! And there would be many willing to risk being left behind in flying weapons if that is what it took.

Or, if things didn't turn out as most hoped, these massive constructions would be their homes and holdouts if they fell into the belly of the beast. All the while the escorting ships would, hopefully, remain close enough to still be of use.

Despite their best efforts and time spent, reality was not kind. Five and half millenia could be enough, but humanity had needed no word from the Vigiles to know that it could, if anything happened, be far less than they would ever need to escape. Humanity had once considered seeing prey running from them as a good thing; it meant their sustenance was assured, if hard won. For the ‘Predator’ this was a game, an amusing one: It would get fed more and taken in its new prey’s intelligence, or it would gain less sustenance and learn far more than originally expected. To it it was the same, either option was a great outcome if it helped the ‘Predator’ in the future. Every single human was aware of how this cat and mouse game could end, and none wanted for the cat to win, but the possibility was there, and it was solid.

In fact, the cat analogy was fitting: The ‘Predator’ could, at any time, call the gig up. As soon as it considered things were right, if it was hungry, or just bored, it could decide that the dinner bell had been going on long enough for its tastes and it was time to attend.

And in the year 5661 of the Galactic Era, the ‘Predator’ seemed to think that its hunger was strong enough for that bell to be tempting beyond measure. That, and as it gazed upon humanity, the ‘Predator’ came to a conclusion: It was enough.

Enough resources had been refined. Enough worlds had been cleaned of materials. Enough time had been given. The lonely species to develop this time had tried its best.

Kidnenss wasn’t in its vocabulary, and its needs had to be met.

The hunt was on, and the ‘Predator’ did not discriminate: It just rolled inwards the moment it decided to act.

Worse by far: It came early.

The Vigiles had the dubious honor of having mapped the ‘Predator’s’ behavior almost religiously. Their earliest estimates for the creature’s activation, if its future desires were as relatively predictable as was the norm, had been estimated to take seven to eight thousand years, depending on various factors. Yet the creature woke up what could be considered a day early in galactic terms? As small a change as it sounded, it was beyond unprecedented.

And catastrophic.

One thing the Vigiles did not share was this: They had machines constantly analyzing the creature’s insides. For the longest time those machines had been the ones to make sure the Vigiles’ predictions about the monster were within 99.99% accuracy. A near perfect overview of an entity of gargantuan proportions should not have been possible, much less with its own control over all its surface and processes. It was this event that exposed something both simple and terrifying to the Vigiles: The ‘Predator’ allowed for this monitoring to go on and, if so desired, it could just fool the Vigiles, people who had whole planets designed to keep an eye on this monster, without even trying.

There was nothing to ‘miss’, there was no error. The Predator had just decided to isolate every sensor in its body and lie to the Vigiles as it watched over humanity’s advancements. Its hunger and curiosity intertwined, the ‘Predator’ would allow no further meddling, and when it considered that the time was right, he exposed, once again, how little control the Vigiles truly had over anything in this universe.

It would be an understatement to say this caught Humanity with its pants down.

On one hand: Tens of thousands of World Ships had been created.

On another: That only covered a fraction of the population and most of those World Ships were still unfinished.

The time frame had changed. An extra thousand years or so had already been taken into account for every plan possible. At worst all of humanity had expected for five hundred years more, give or take a hundred. Confidence in the Vigiles, despite thousands of years since their reveal, had never been high, much less absolute, so the vast majority of humans did not trust their information. But this? To be surprised in a way that some Vigiles seemed to just… faint? Consciousness locked in their proxi suits for minutes, or hours, because they had been bested once again with something the massive monster likely considered less than smoke and mirrors, less than a parlor trick.

In truth the ‘Predator’ had been maturing fast during the last attempts from the Vigiles. It had been an ‘adult’ for a long time, but constant mental stimulation from an outside source had accelerated further development. By no means was the ‘Predator’ a sage, or just above average, for its species, but for an entity whose whole body could also count as an active brain, a massive and (comparatively for a regular sized sapient being) omniscient supercomputer, its capabilities were beyond regular mortals BEFORE it had taken such a leap. Its decision making had been impossible to discern before, unless the ‘Predator’ decided it would be interesting to communicate and see their reactions. After it had matured enough? Literal four dimensional chess would be trivial for it. As such it was much too simple for the ‘Predator’ to come to a decision: Humanity was ripe, one way or another.

Could be considered a blessing that the entity still thought it could learn, and that it still found the hunt ‘fun’.

Humanity, and the Vigiles, didn’t share the sentiment.

With surprising alacrity the monster attacked. Dozens of worlds fell silent in a few hours; outposts with automated signals, sure, but places still useful one way or another. Most had been heavily mined and were unlivable by default, even for most extremophiles, but to see them being engulfed in a mass of what appeared to be gelatinous flesh of colors that changed every time you looked at it, was simply horrific. Worse yet: The ‘flesh’ advanced at breakneck speeds, only stopping at what seemed to be fixed intervals.

A ruse, or a natural feature of the creature? Perhaps just a game or a negative effect of activating itself earlier? That had never been observed and the Vigiles held no answers, at least none that humanity trusted. Almost all humans had done was backed by assurances they hadn’t really trusted, and now that they were vindicated, the Vigiles seemed more unreliable than ever. Considering the time the robotic bodies took to come out of their panic induced daze, this distrust only grew.

And the deaths that came soon made things predictably worse.

So many World Ships were unfinished that the comparatively simple, if still massive, escort ships that were to accompany them had, in essence, no real use, not if the ‘Predator’ overtook the worlds where these unfinished ships were being manufactured. These things were weapons of desperation and transports in a pinch with upscaled weapons and cargo holds. They had two uses, and one of them was required over the other.

These ships, lacking Jump Engines, could be lost. It was a horrid thought, but also a pragmatic one. Everyone knew it, and everyone had accepted it long ago. Thousands of gigantic ships that could have leveled planets were instead equipped mainly with weapons designed to combat a biological enemy, and everyone, on board or not, could only hope they did their job well if it ever came to that.

Courage and determination fueling many captains and crews, the ships whose preferred purpose would never come took to every corner of the galaxy as the devouring process started. Their weapons proved effective: The organic wave rolling in decayed, melted or just dissipated into apparently nothing. Every shot, the size of a cannonball, composed of a solidified liquid meant to melt upon contact with the ‘Predator’, made holes the size of a house when they touched the creature. And that was just the simplest weapon.

Every ship had a large variety of ordinance, including explosive deliveries meant to spread the solution in ways that could create a massive hole in the ‘Predator’s’ surface, continuous, almost ‘laser’ like streams, teleporting explosives and even automated drones that managed to last seconds within the monster, cutting pieces of the creature the size of large asteroids at a time. Liquid mixtures that could freeze island sized chunks, or turn them into blazing infernos. Very limited, experimental explosives that spread fungus meant to decay flesh at incredible speeds.

Humanity used everything they could and used it well. A valiant defense, an impressive effort. No one would deny that.

Really incredible, even the Vigiles admitted that without shame. Truth was truth.

Also completely meaningless. That much wasn’t a surprise, even if hope did flare into existence for a second.

An armada the likes of which could easily conquer galaxies was deployed to contain one single monster, and while the ‘Predator’ likely didn’t even feel pain from this, it felt annoyance. Yes, its mass was depleted, reabsorbed and repurposed, wasting a small smidge of resources. That alone was simply beyond incredible when it came to resistance. But no, it did no damage. The ‘fight’ lasted a few days as the ‘Predator’ took this new knowledge in, which amounted to enough of its mass being ‘destroyed’ to create a world big enough to fit all of Sol System’s planets, even the sun, within.

To the predator that much damage amounted to a slight inch on the tip of a finger.

Knowledge acquired, and annoyance surpassing what could pass for patience with this creature, the ‘Predator’ pushed forward. Not ‘quite’ forward though, as it proved once more that what the Vigiles knew was just what the ‘Predator’ wished to share with them: From behind, above, bellow and the sides, the ‘Predator’s’ mass enveloped the ships, one by one, all over the galaxy. Those that fought were quickly assimilated, their connection to the rest of the galaxy, to the Cloning Centers and to the medical database, was snapped.

Everyone that volunteered to stall the monster was gone.

Dead.

Tens of thousands, more than a hundred thousands lives lost in a snap.

Such an event hadn’t happened since they left the Sol System.

And everyone knew, they KNEW, that if the necessary crew for these ships wasn’t less than half a dozen thanks to their ships AIs and ease of use, these hundreds of thousands would have been MILLIONS. Simply horrible.

Humanity panicked, with reason: They tried and they hoped, but there was no denying it anymore, nor was there hope left. The end was coming, and it accelerated its pace after being defied.

Despair was about to set in, until survivors began to trickle into the limelight.

An unprecedented event: All that was touched by the ‘Predator’ had, in the past, been melted, digested and assimilated. Yet this time, as the ‘Predator’ made another push and this time it did reach either habitats in space or sparse colonies in the periphery, some managed to escape after the entity touched them and their ships.

What was this? How was it possible? The answer was relatively simple: As everything was alive, and as almost everything in the galaxy came from multiple feedings from the ‘Predator’, with some new materials floating into the Milky Way at intervals, everything had evolved.

Horrible as it was to think, everything in the Milky Way had, over time, grown to be connected with its constant devourer. Every material was easier to process, every creature welcomed the touch of the monster that was going to eat them, and every sapient entity had this natural dread at the idea of being consumed. This strange relationship had reached its climax during humanity’s evolution: A natural resilience to the ‘Predator’s’ hunger and a much more pronounced adaptability than any previous species in the Milky Way.

It was… imperfect, though.

Evolution at a galactic, if not universal, scale was, as proven by the ‘Predator’ itself, very slow. Immunity was impossible to acquire; everything eats and is eaten in one way or another. Resistance to predation? That was easier to achieve. But resistance does not mean invulnerability in any way, much less when it was a ‘simple’ resistance, such as what Humanity had developed. As such, survivors brought great discoveries, but not all of them were pleasant.

Best case scenario: Cybernetic augmentation. Cyborg creation.

Undesirable when compared to biological augmentation that had been common for many millennia, cybernetics had always been available as soon as bioengineering reached its peak. Grafting artificial limbs was much simpler than cloning a perfect replacement, but it was also seen as a much cruder and inferior way of doing things. However, survivors from the ‘Predator’ seemed to reject such ‘perfect’ cloned copies. For some reason, once attached, the areas that had been touched by the ‘Predator’, that melted and became basically digested slurry with the person still alive, would suffer the same fate even without being near the entity. As such, and with no other way around it, artificial body parts and organs were necessary for those with a natural resilience to the creature.

Worst case: Complete body melting. Bioform manufacturing.

A much more pronounced resistance to the ‘Predator’s’ effects granted a human the ability of surviving the ‘digestion’ for longer, but pronounced exposure would create an ‘allergic’ reaction where the body would be digested all the same. What survived was their consciousness, instead of also being absorbed by the creature. This, more often than not, ended in ego death: Cloning the body whole and inserting their consciousness, as was normal by now, ended in the ‘allergic’ reaction taking place again, forcing a new digestion and a world of pain once more. Most people could survive perhaps a dozen processes before the mind shut down and became unavailable for the cloning process. They were essentially dead and gone.

This required innovation, which resulted in resurrecting an old project: The Bioform initiative.

Almost as old as Cyborgs, or the idea of them, the Bioforms were meant to give people immortal bodies: Biomechanical replicas that were, by all intents and purposes, living metal. A mix of organic compounds, human genetic material and metals that had been concocted during the initial perfection drive with Bioengineering. The project was scrapped after functional immortality became a thing, but within weeks artificial bodies were made for those that survived the ‘Predator’ with ill fated consequences.

Despite how gruesome and brutal this was, it drove away despair from many hearts. Some people could resist, or even ‘survive’ the monster that was engulfing them! Then that meant that, yes, escape was indeed possible. By no means would it be easy, no, but it would be far better than waiting for the monster to end them all.

It was strange but, by that same logic, the ‘Predator’ found itself allowing humans those small ‘breathers’ that it had been taking. Creatures that could resist its touch? Intriguing. From what sparse contact it had with others of its species, the ‘Predator’ had never seen this happen. Granted that most of its brethren were far more ‘thorough’ with their devouring, sometimes ending a galaxy in a few dozen feedings, instead of how long the ‘Predator’ had been living in the same spot. Perhaps that was the reason? Curiosity and hunger collided, but in the end the ‘Predator’s’ vast intelligence won with a simple answer.

Either way, it would get everything.

It knew that it would happen, all thanks to some of the lives it had taken already.

There was no rush, but advance was inevitable. Hunger demanded, and needs must. The reprieve the ‘Predator’ offered was there for a reason, but it would not be merciful, for it was not in its nature.

Meanwhile, humanity and the Vigiles were in an uproar.

The Vigiles themselves were extremely low in resources; their ships and robotic proxies were here to help and do little else. They were overseers, not fighters. The days in which they employed force to attain their desires were long gone. Far too many things in the universe were above and beyond the possibility of violence that, in effect, all the Vigiles had found to be useful was either diplomacy or defense. Even their technological expertise could not be used, simply because any ‘taint’ of their own designs would be like playing russian roulette: If any part of their own Jump Engines made it into humanity’s own design, be it just compatibility, chance, or ease of use that could be implemented, escape would be impossible.

That the Bioforms could come to be made in record time was thanks to the Vigiles, although it came at a cost. They would not share their technology in fear of making Humanity an easier time during a Jump, but their defensive technologies were indeed far beyond what humans had developed. With a fraction of the ships that Humanity had used the Vigiles managed to stop, really stop, the ‘Predator’ for a few days. An incredible feat without a doubt, but one that required the Vigiles’ self-destruction in less than a week once the ‘Predator’ figured out how to bypass this new annoyance. More worrying, if not downright horrible, was how the creature had done something that would have taken most advanced species years, perhaps decades, in just days. With no desire to give the creature even more comprehension of their technologies, much less information about their new discoveries, nearly all Vigiles created detonations so strong that they DID bother the monster.

But bothering something this size barely meant feeling perhaps a slight breeze. It was a little more than Humanity’s own attempt, but in the end it just didn’t do more than delay the inevitable.

What was mere seconds, if that, for the ‘Predator’, less than a week of extra resistance, was enough for the furious humans to work things through.

Not only had the Cyber initiatives been brought back, now that what was meant to be lethal contact had proven to be less than that, at least in many cases, but many recurring problems had been smoothed over for obvious reasons. Despite the comparative peace they had enjoyed, if you looked at most star faring species, Humanity hadn’t been free of conflict during its growth.

Pirates, small civil wars, general riots or dissidents… All of that had been a thing, but so ‘small’ in comparison to the big picture, to the great discoveries and problems they faced, that, at best, they were footnotes in history. Many of those had pushed technology forward (infighting had, after all, been the primary developer of the Cloning Centers above all other dangers), and now, as Humanity’s last stand came to be a real thing, as oblivion or survival was their only options, they all ceased in every capacity.

Barely there World Ships were constructed or cannibalized in record time. Projects that would take years, decades even, completed in days as billions of souls converged, then focused on speeding up everything that was to be done. It was a makeshift job in comparison, but still masterfully done if you considered the alternative.

It still left many billions, perhaps trillions, with a simple realization: There weren’t going to be enough ships for everyone.

Resources and people were easy to come by, but even then two weeks were hardly enough, no matter the rush job. Thus, knowing real death awaited them, many volunteered to do as the first wave of defenders had done and stall for time.

It was an exercise in futility and everyone that volunteered knew it. What could they do? To top everything else off, something the ‘Predator’ had done time and time again, the damn monster had proven that it could appear from anywhere. The ever advancing ‘flesh’ that it had manifested was just a way for it to toy with its food.

The people volunteering didn’t think they could truly stall the monster. They believed they could entice it with a distraction just to feed its ego, entertain it and show the ‘Predator’ just how determined Humanity was.

Rather surprisingly, it worked.

Or, just as likely if not more, the ‘Predator’ allowed it to work.

From planetary defense to whole star system collapses and quickly modified ships crafted quickly (an easy feat when compared to a World Ship) with materials that had proven to be harder to absorb, Humans died by the billions to buy hours, not days. In a grim way the expansion of old had the intended effect, but not at the expected cost.

That is a lie: It was the expected cost. Less than expected in fact, just not by most.

Because there was a small group, numerically speaking, that had been waiting for this and, when the opportunity presented itself, they took action. It could have been sooner, yes, but the Vigiles were still around. Now, with them virtually nonexistent in the Milky Way as it was consumed, the perfect moment had been presented.

Humanity was dying, but it wasn’t out. Remnants of Jump Engines were nowhere to be found wherever the ‘Predator’ was approaching too fast, and with tens of thousands of World Ships ready to go as countless lives were lost every day, a pyrrhic victory was on the horizon. So many people had lost loved ones, family, friends… but survival was not only possible: It was guaranteed. At the very least that was the positive thinking of those that had been lucky enough to board the planet sized ships. Morale was down to its last dregs, but hope for a better tomorrow was holding everyone together. Much had been lost, but every sacrifice would be honored and the memories would remain with the survivors.

Here is where Humanity proposed a question that derailed everything for a very short time. Just enough for an answer, in fact.

To what lengths would you go for hate?

The answer?

Genocide.

Millenia of resentment, hate, anger and feeling betrayed had festered in one particular group of people. Founded by the descendants of those that had once ensured Humanity never went too far, by any means necessary, this group would in the future be known as the ‘Betrayers’. It had absorbed not only members from old nations absorbed by Humanity in its ascension, or remnants of religious groups from old, but also many of those unhappy with the constant drudgery and almost enforced single mindedness of life that required for people to do little more than work, breed, expand and prepare in such a monotonous way that any pleasure and color was literally drained from their lives.

Nothing was perfect, and the society humans had constructed to escape the ‘Predator’ was a thankless one. With entertainment scarce and the grind always on, it was not hard for small groups with a vendetta to slowly drag people into their clutches. Give such hate enough time, and have the group become as insular as possible, and in time you could get a reaction as catastrophical as the one that took place here.

The Betrayers used their World Ship to Jump into the ‘Predator’.

Not to escape and somehow doom everyone.

Not to create a chain reaction that would destroy or damage most other World Ships.

There was no plan conceivable that could damage humanity enough for these people to be satisfied. But there was ONE way to at least satisfy part of their hate and consider some of the old grudges solved. Do ignore the many, many others still in effect: This plan was satisfying, yes, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

All it took was one precise calculation to jump exactly into the dimension the ‘Predator’ was in. A reality in which the monster was many times LARGER than it already was.

It was suicide.

It was insane.

It was literal doom for everyone.

The Betrayers could not care any less. For all they were concerned, Humanity would get exactly what it deserved.

A massive number of people were dead, having selflessly sacrified themselves to keep Humanity safe for mere days, but long enough to guarantee the survival of trillions upon trillions of human lives. The death toll was absurd.

Just as absurd as having a galaxy wide call prove just how far hate can drive you to go.

Could it get worse? Why, yes.

Not only did this doom every single human in the Milky Way; it was just physically impossible to create a different version of the Jump Engine that was compatible with human biology in what little time was left. There weren’t enough people or means left to entertain the ‘Predator’ and, all of sudden, its interest in those games was lost.

Someone had delivered themselves into its body! That was sincerely new.

Curious even.

Thus came the even bigger surprise and middle finger: The Betrayers could, somehow, ignore much of the ‘Predator’s’ means.

Their connection to the Cloning Centers and the data banks that held humanity together was gone, yes, but they weren’t dead. In fact, as humans would soon discover, the ‘Predator’ would indeed not kill them. And yet, unlike Humanity at large, the Betrayers would gain a boon in a way no one but them, and perhaps the ‘Predator’ were aware of: Unlike all others, the Betrayers would be allowed to keep their World Ship, and their freedom, largely intact.

Everyone else? Not so much.

Their revenge would come to no cost of their own in the end. Right or wrong, they had gotten away with all they wanted. Even then, they weren’t happy with it and, in the future, they would come to harass who they called their sworn enemies. In the interim, they had given the ‘Predator’ everything it needed to catch every escapee without difficulty.

For a second it thought of letting them go.

There were far too many reasons as to why it thought to do so. Chief of all? Humanity’s danger and adaptability.

Ironically enough, it was that danger, and that incredible adaptability, that told the ‘Predator’ to keep them.

While it would leave the Betrayers’ World Ship intact, either of its own volition or whatever kept them ‘safe’ from its manipulation beyond a ‘basic’ conversion, the ‘Predator’ could still make use of the billions of humans aboard the huge ship. In time they would breed in the many species the ‘Predator’ would design for them. They would become its own body cells, Human Cells, to make sure its body kept working as intended.

And THAT was exactly why the monster decided to keep Humanity.

Its growth had been… anomalous, for its kind that is.

Its species was chaotic by nature; parasites in this huge entity that was the universe, they were usually hunted down by its own natural defenses. Absorbing many genetic makeups and forever changing with their mastery over biology was the one way to survive for the ‘Predator’s’ species.

But they usually devoured galaxies whole in a few feedings. This constant that the ‘Predator’ had created was rare, but not unheard off. It proved to be a negative, though, as its nature had changed, and the desire to move on, to find new feeding grounds, was largely inert. Considering the ‘males’ of its kind, those that did not create new offspring, were meant to prey on everything to keep the ‘females’ safe, its behaviour had changed to dangerous levels. Other changes came with it; Its own inner workings had been damaged, meaning its ability to process materials, recycle them, acquire what it needed and so on, meaning its whole metabolic process had been altered for the worst.

The ‘Predator’ required no help, nor would it do so for millions, if not billions, of years,  if it remained alive that long. But like any other living being, like humans and other species,  it could benefit from a ‘vaccine’ of some kind.

Humans, as it turned out, were the perfect external bodies for that kind of work.

There was no rush for the ‘Predator’. It could wait many feedings before this could even be considered a problem. It could even force itself to move, as its kind ought to do, despite not desiring to.

And yet…

The temptation of acquiring one of the most interesting species, one that had done so many strange things, that had even pushed those ‘pests’ that called themselves ‘Vigiles’ of all things, was too strong. This species was far too useful for the ‘Predator’s’ needs, far too interesting and just so attuned with its own body already. Surviving its touch all but proved this.

Curiosity, future needs and a touch of real interest forged the future of the human species. There was no ‘care’ or ‘love’ for the species, not in a way a human could identify it. No, it was more a ‘care’ in the sense of a master to their dog, or perhaps pet insects, ones that could make the master’s life better, and they may need to be taught, or culled, regularly.

In the ‘Predator’s’ mind there was purpose. Yes, it had come to appreciate the uniqueness of the humans, but such unique features COULD appear again, more so if its touch was making such wonders appear more frequently. It fancied itself not a ‘god’, but its mastery over biology and incredible experience in general, brought with age, were enough to tell the ‘Predator’ this would be so. Yet, this was a unique moment in its life, and perhaps its own version of fancy, that desire to see where Humanity could go if its own touch could make sure to shape their future even more, all mixed with its own needs and desire, won the day.

And while this took mere moments for the ‘Predator’ to decide, Humanity’s own path took no time at all.

Because rage has a way to overcome despair, and there was no species in the known galaxy so spiteful in their rage as the human species.

If they were to die, or be taken?  Then they would go with the biggest, loudest bang ever!

Every person left their makeshift frontlines. Every man, woman and child loaded themselves in the new memory bank of their World Ships. A simple process, one made even easier by using the Cloning Centers to remain in suspended animation while the AI of these massive ships would take care of the Jump. This was meant to be the last action of Humanity in the Milky Way, and one that left a mark.

At first it could look as if they were attempting to go with the escape plan; whether it worked or failed, being in stasis would at least ensure no one was conscious, and as every other hope was lost, there was no reason to cram everyone in. Almost every ship was filled over capacity and many pods in the Cloning Centers had to fit more than one person, something that was never meant to happen. It all appeared to be a desperate measure to try, Jump through the barrier to escape, and land safely away. Even one ship would do!

Counting that everyone was, technically, alive, that is.

The AI in every World Ship was deceptively simple, and above all else, even the protection of human life, it had a simple command: To self destruct if no signs of life were found. This included the Cloning Centers’ databases. A full decrewing event was meant to signify capture by the ‘Predator’, and the AI of this ship was meant to have at least a couple million living souls within scanner range ANYWHERE in its surface. These World Ships were meant to be used forever, ideally at least, and the thought of ever abandoning them had become so alien to some that even after freedom was achieved they would remain the home of countless humans.

With this in mind, these ships were packed with energy to points that old humans would compare to a star. And it was relatively simple to make it go supernova. All it needed was rerouting the power into specific key points to make the biggest explosion Humanity had ever created. The idea was that, even for something like the ‘Predator’, such a searing pain, more so when facing its real body in this part of subspace, would allow for other, undamaged (or less compromised), World Ships to escape as the monster recoiled in pain.

Admittedly it was an idea that could have worked.

Could.

Tens of thousands of World Ships overcharging themselves and exploding like that? If Humanity knew where and how to send them to hit the ‘Predator’s’ weak points, few as they were, they could have either weakened, or even killed, the creature. It was one of those things you have one in a million chance to accomplish, true; even a supernova was very small, like a firecracker, for the ‘Predator’. But everyone knew that a firecracker could hurt, or do even worse, to a person if one was unlucky enough.

‘Victory’ or just ‘hurting’ the ‘Predator’ wasn’t the plan. Humanity had its numbers shrunk dramatically in less than a month. They had to go through a mad dash of work, loss, mental anguish and, finally, hopelessness sprinkled with the biggest dose of anger the species had ever seen. This wasn’t about making a rational choice when rationality had thrown out the window and any possibility of ‘victory’ was burned to cinder. This was a big ‘FUCK YOU!’, with a species wide middle finger involved on it all.

What Humanity did was ask the creators of the Cloning Center’s programming to make a simple modification. A perk of this ‘immortality’ of theirs; the original programmers were there, and very aware of how to create a single moment, seconds really, in which the World Ships would consider all lost and then ignite.

It was a process that no living being could hope to stop, and one created with milliseconds left to react to something so destructive, so big, that it should have been flawless in execution. A collective death pact that had every single human’s agreement. What was the alternative? Being consumed or enslaved by that thing? With virtually every person left in the Milky Way having lost something to the monster, no one saw it fit to give that thing anything more, not without a proper farewell.

One thing was overlooked, of course.

This took barely a day to execute. Quick recalls, frenzied programming and orderly, if grim execution, was all impressive indeed. A process like this was nearly machine in efficiency when it came to Humanity’s more commonly seen chaos.

As for the ‘Predator’? For the creature it took a moment of thought to know that Humanity would either capitulate as they lost their will… Or they would do the most batshit insane thing they could ever hope for.

And wouldn’t you know? While the Betrayers were ‘spared’ the ‘Predator’s’ full touch, they had been in its clutches for long enough to already begin their adaptation into its body. This included their World Ship and, incidentally… one of the creators of the very programming that would become key in Humanity’s blaze of glory.

Even after they had doomed everyone, after having done all they thought they could, the Betrayers still managed to mess with their brethren one last time.

Humanity as a whole did not know this, and even if they did, they would have tried anyway. With everything else lost, what else was there to do?

Far more important than that was the simple reality that even the ‘Predator’ had a chance of failing to catch the payload that was about to go its way. The precision required to detect, disarm and then ‘save’ every single World Ship was… tricky. Explosions were one thing, but with everyone in the Cloning Centers sleeping in pods, there were other means to just snuff the light of every single soul in a World Ship when the Predator’s presence was detected.

Despite everything, Humanity hadn’t suddenly become stupid in their rage. There had been protocols and precautions long before this crazy plan was set in motion. But all would matter and be as effective as one another the moment the World Ships made the Jump.

Because, at the end of the day, what the ‘Predator’ wanted, the ‘Predator’ got.

So when a massive horde of planet sized ships finally made a coordinated jump, intent of at least causing a ruckus and ensuring the monster hunting the species within would both feel and remember its latest prey for millenia to come. They had expected for the thing to wait for them, to try and minimize damage, or hunt them, or try to capture them. What they didn’t expect was for the ‘Predator’ to invest energy in cushioning their jump, invade their homes at incredible speed, nullify their attempt at immolation and then ‘save’ every World Ship from catastrophic damage and life loss when their protocols almost destroyed many of the ships from the inside when they could not do anything else.

Humanity’s self-destructive behavior when they had no other way out was well documented, and they had so many redundancies that, even for the ‘Predator’, it was impossible to get a perfect score. Many World Ships suffered damage, sometimes catastrophic damage. The lives within were preserved the moment its touch fell on them, though whether the humans would ever appreciate it or not was debatable. Nevertheless, no World Ship escaped, no World Ship exploded and, more importantly, for the ‘Predator’ anyway, the monster had gotten what it wanted.

A story of tragedy,horror and loss just ended in the snap of the fingers.

The ‘Predator’ won.

That was it.

No fanfare or great event. Just a blip of the radar as the World Ships jumped in and, within seconds, Humanity was gone.

In a sense at least.

From the outside, the Vigiles knew this was another loss. The ‘Predator’ got a new servant species OR Humanity had died out. Either way, as it was the norm, the Vigiles could only prepare for the next time they would be needed. Millions of years would go by once more, but for them, just as it would have for Humanity, had they escaped, time had turned immaterial.

Victory would have been satisfying, vindictive, but that was… hard to come by.

Ironically enough, this was the same for the ‘Predator’. To it, that day was another Tuesday.

Yes, it wanted Humanity. Yes, it would need such a species within itself in the future. Yes, it had finally noticed that something was wrong within itself… But that was life, a capricious moment and age, not necessarily in the correct order, not that the massive entity cared much for it.

The ‘Predator’ was changing Humanity. That is all that mattered now. That, and the fact that, whether they liked it or not, Humanity would come to accept their new lot.

Their adaptability would see to it. And if not? Some minor meddling by dispersing pheromones and mental manipulation would get the trick done.

Morals were for simpler creatures than the ‘Predator’ after all.

But for Humanity?

This was a new beginning. It would be far more terrible, yet hopeful, than they could ever imagine. However, the start would be shocking beyond belief. Horror could hardly explain how it felt like when, one by one, the dreamers began to come out of their pods. They had expected death, perhaps Heaven, Hell, maybe even just ‘nothing’ and for everything to be gone in a second.

To Humanity, waking up was a cold realization: Slavery.

No, it was even worse. Their wake up brought something worse.

Mutation and mental manipulation.

Mere days were needed. After that? Some people woke up normally… only not quite. Men, as a whole, were almost gone. There was the rare proper man, some of which were even larger and more robust than before. But for most of them? A more feminine appearance, borderline female, even adding breasts to the mix, was commonplace. The male sex was, by and large, almost eradicated.

That didn’t mean ‘maleness’ was gone, though.

Hermaphroditism, intersexed individuals and so on became the norm. Even regular women became a minority, but still above the abysmal zero point zero, one percent that were the men, and that was a hopeful number. Nearly everyone, except for the larger, ‘full fledged’ males, could slowly, or sometimes even rapidly, turn into a more female adjacent form, get bred and be impregnated.

A complete rework of how humans worked.

Something to have a mental breakdown over.

Only barely anyone did.

Some people broke down, but this was one case in a million, perhaps less.

The ‘Predator’ had worked its magic: Humanity’s brain chemistry had been altered. Their biology had remained human, or compatible with what a human should be, but they had been changed in certain ways; bioengineered to the core.

Shock, surprise and no small levels of horror hit Humanity as this was found out. It became worse when they discovered that, yes, they were within the massive body of the ‘Predator’. Trapped within a different dimension, a space between spaces, every single human was now property of the monster. It was also clear the thing had decided to ‘upgrade’ its catch, and this alone, paired with the few cases of insanity, as well as the damage that some World Ships had suffered, took Humanity’s whole attention. No one was yet aware of just how much things had taken a turn… until there was no way to deny it anymore and knowledge began to spread.

How? By discovering that humans weren’t quite ‘humans’ anymore. In fact, this discovery came when the first ‘not quite humans’ began to wake up.

These transhumans did not wake up at the same time as those that remained ‘vanilla human’, at least in looks. Whereas the regular humans took a few days, others would take at least a week. More than enough time for the original problems to be tackled and for people to have calmed down *slightly*, though many wondered why only a small portion of the people from the Cloning Centers had gotten out of the pods. Their answer would appear the moment the first variants of the new human species began to wake up: The Cyborgs and Bioforms.

Originally thought to be perfectly fine, it wasn’t until tests began to pour in that everyone noticed an incredible number of inconsistencies and differences. Things their mind had blocked now became glaringly obvious.

Cyborgs weren’t humans with artificial parts grafted in: Their prosthetics now were a literal part of them, not something that could be taken off and replaced.

Bioforms weren’t those that had survived in a semi liquid state, their minds inserted in biometal. Instead now their bodies were fully biological, but instead served as an (apparent) technological shell for their soft insides, as if they were an insect.

They were just the first. Soon the realization struck as many others, none of them any closer to regular humans than the ones that came before, began to appear; Humans mixed with sperm cells and egg cells came first, then white cells, muscle cells and so many others. The biodiversity of the species had increased to absurd levels, not helped by the fact that many of these new ‘breeds’ of humans were also mixed with some kind of animal by default and for reasons unknown to humanity as a whole.

Some of those mixed genetic codes made sense. White Cell humans were mixed with felines, mostly domestic cats, whereas Muscle Cells had been hybridized with primates, mostly gorillas, eye cells had been mixed with moths, ear cells with bats. In a way you could see it. Others? Others had mixed that made even less sense. What did a kidney cell have to do with a fox? Or a blood cell with a dog? Lung cells and frogs could be considered normal in this madness?

Humanity stopped trying to understand the reasonings soon enough.

Almost every new Human Cell, except traditional ‘humans’, Cyborgs and Bioforms, had been modified even further than first thought. Whether they made sense or not,the vast majority of them had been given animal genetics by the ‘Predator’ to help with their new functions in one way or another. Incredible abilities were discovered as time went on, and the utility alone mollified many of those that (easily) found reason to be angry at the change. If you were to be altered without your consent, at least having some kind of power or ability to make up for it was the least you could expect and hope for. A silver lining, thin as it was for many.

Their own bodies, even those of the regular humans, had been changed even further than that, if you can believe it. It was quickly confirmed that their inside, while resembling what they had once been, minus the strange sexual transformations that had befallen them, were there for ‘show’: Oh sure, they could digest food, they needed to breathe and they could reproduce sexually (in fact they could do this much better than before!), but none of the organs were really needed for these things to happen.

And their skin? Oh, that was the best part. The human skin, of ALL breeds, was no skin. It was a plasma membrane, similar to that of a cell, unsurprisingly enough. Incredibly tough, but insanely elastic, far more so than it should have been for an organism the size of a human, this membrane perfectly mimicked the feel of everything it was trying to imitate: Hair, skin, teeth and more… But it was all for show in the end and largely controlled by the human ‘brain’ and the desire to be ‘normal’.

Humanity had become what one could call ‘Cells’. Or ‘Human Cells’, as the collective began to define what they had become, some nearly losing their mind over it when their surprise and incredulity died down.

And yet again, almost no one had to suffer even a second of mental anguish. Once again, the ‘Predator’ made sure that its acquisitions were impervious to such mental instability. It did not make them invulnerable to rage at the fact, or even the insanity itself, but there was little they could do and the effect made sure that almost, nearly one hundred percent of them, stayed sane.

Even then, if this was too much, suicide didn’t help. Not even trying to wipe themselves from the Cloning Center databases did.

The ‘Predator’ had ALL of them in its clutches.Even their consciousness was no longer stored in the machines, most, if not ALL, of which were machines only in LOOK, as vast sections of the ‘Predator’ had been assimilated into flesh that looked just as humans would have expected their World Ships to look. In essence every single human was now at the mercy of the ‘Predator’, and the entity made sure to make this painfully obvious to those that tried to do something drastic about their fate.

With such revelations falling one after the other in their lap, and their ability to communicate limited by the ‘Predator’s’ will, Humanity as a whole found that their freedom was now not in question, instead being just gone. They had become slaves to the ‘Predator’, and they would soon learn their place.

Staving off infection.

Keeping organs working properly.

Aiding in the processing of materials.

Ensuring their own World Ships, or the mockery lookalikes left behind the absorption event, were all safe and in tip top condition.

All of those were to be their daily toll.

Titanic Macro Bacteria and gigantic Mega Viruses, things that went from the size of a rat to that of buildings, ships or even large, were a painful reality. These monsters lived in the space between spaces, in various other dimensions and far away from the human eye… until now. Part of Humanity’s obligations would see them battling these monstrosities wherever they appeared.

Many of their manufacturing centers, recycling factories and purifying plants had been repurposed, or imitations of them had been ‘grown’ close to functioning organs. Humans were to man these, minimize the ‘Predator’s’ dependency on its own means and maximize its gains. In a way this would offer future entities growing in the Milky Way a chance to escape.

And, of course, their own homes! The World Ships that had ALMOST seen them to safety, or to a conflagrating death that could have, COULD HAVE, harmed the monster now oppressing them. They were either fakes, or the real deal, but it hardly mattered. They were their homes and, as it was proven, they weren’t immune to wear and tear, no matter if biological or just mechanical.

Yet, above all these, there was ONE task the ‘Predator’ promoted.

Breeding.

Tons and tons of breeding.

Which, admittedly, could be considered perfectly fine: Change the people serving under you to seek more relief with one another AND make new slaves.

Until you also find out that *THIS* particular act had included further transformation to them.

Some of these changes were in the ‘tame’ category; like enlarging genitalia until it became what most would define ‘hyper’ in proportions, or the acquisition of hyper ideal appearances. Changes that made people more ‘appealing’ to the eye and their brains, now geared towards seeking the most compatible and fertile companions possible alongside the feeling of satisfaction with your own body. A simple self satisfying change that made bodies easy to maintain and turn into an ‘ideal’ form.

Then there were even more advanced ones that granted more arms, legs, a quadruped, centaur like body, and much more which included even certain more extreme changes… Some of these weren’t meant for reproduction, but for utility, yet many among these changed humans found that further changes to the original form aroused them and got them in the mood. It was not the worst discovery, but some found this new version of ‘beauty’ and what was ‘desirable’ as, shall we say, worrying.

But nothing, absolutely nothing, could prepare a normal human mind to accept some of the ‘incredible’ changes that the ‘Predator’ found no problem with. In fact the ‘Predator’ was greatly pleased with these modifications and sought to ensure they became a mainstay in all its ‘helpers’.

Remember those pods that had two people inside?

Just imagine how they shocked people when those two became one.

Two heads, double the genitalia, double the needs, desires, confusion and everything else.

Or how about discovering that you, as a person, now felt like you absolutely *NEEDED* to become a different subspecies? Perhaps finding out the opposite? That you DESIRED to make someone else of your own subspecies? That led to the discovery of just how easily a human could be repurposed.

Literally.

Absorb someone through your breasts, member, pussy, anus or even eating them altogether and you get guaranteed future children of a particular kind. A gruesome, disgusting view to many, almost everyone, in the past. Something left to the fantasies of a few… Now a very real reality in which the material acquired would be repurposed into semen or eggs, then either injected in the desired subspecies if possible, or have the desired subspecies breed the consumer. That way the person was born anew with the desired species and abilities.

… Plus probably a few hundred sisters/brothers/daughters/sons/clones.

Family trees could get very complicated.

Why, you could even make it WORSE still. How? Simple! All those pregnancies, normal or those ‘new’ ones with a more robust ‘donation’? You cannot carry them to term, oh no. Because WHY WOULD YOU? Instead, a pregnancy quickly grows until the baby (or babies) inside start to resemble not children, but adults. On average a pregnancy could last a month at most before anyone pregnant would need to visit a Cloning Center to have their children transferred into one of the pods so the rest of the ‘pregnancy’ can be carried out normally. Though now ‘normally’ meant that every pregnancy, once transferred, would quickly develop into a full formed adult.

Not only had the creature enslaved and transformed all of Humanity: Reproduction without its input was now impossible. With every Cloning Center intrinsically connected to the ‘Predator’, more than any other part of the World Ships within its body, every new human born, no matter how, no matter the subspecies, no matter the  desire of its parents, would be part of the ‘Predator’ one way or another.

And yet the desire to breed, multiply and expand within the monster’s body made the idea no less appealing.

That is if we ignore the hunger that came with it. A species wide desire, compulsion even, to consume danger. It could mean the entities outside of the World Ships, endangering everyone; to feed them to the ‘Predator’ or process them themselves. But far more worryingly was the hunger for those that could ‘break the rules’: Murderers, traitors, those that could sabotage their homes… Rare as they could be, for death was a hard thing to achieve and most wouldn’t dare damage the World Ship or their communities, there was this ‘inkling’, this ‘thought’, of it being possible. Such a thought left everyone a feeling of hate, of sacrilege and hunger. And for those whose mind was at its limit? The desire to try, or even do, such damage could grow to the limit until it happened.

Only one punishment came to mind: Not prison, not physical or menial punishment, no… Consumption.

Disgustingly gruesome, complicated, horrible and erotic. All of it falling under the same umbrella as humanity found out that THIS kind of thing was now… hot. It all held a strange allure that threw humans off, but they couldn’t do a thing about it.

Most people wanted it. They wanted ALL their imagination could conjure.

Most people found it disturbing, if nothing else.

Their minds had been so warped that many found it troublesome that they weren’t going insane. Many even found this change so hard to deal with, more so with their modified minds trying to force them to be okay with everything, that they just snapped and ‘disconnected’, as it were. They all knew this was not wrong, because that would be too kind. But there was no way to truly be repulsed towards it all.

Humanity was turned into everything that the ‘Predator’ wanted, and those whose minds ‘checked out’, were turned into ever laboring ‘Drones’: Bodies that had their face erased, that still held the mind within, dormant and unaware of what was going on, and that did the will of the ‘Predator’ with even less objections than the recently made slave race.

This was not a story in which the good guy wins. This is a story in which the monster gets all it wants in the end.

And yet, the victims all have so many stories to tell of their own and, in time, they will all adapt and overcome. It was not a question of them doing, it was a question of how long it would take. Humanity had, despite their best attempt at the end, survived, and they would remain alive. Some would dream of the day they would escape this new ‘world’, others would fantasize with the opportunities presented to them, while others only wanted to make a ‘normal’ and, hopefully, ‘less dangerous’ life inside the massive monster that had claimed them.

Many hopes, many grievances, but in the end they had a new home and a name for it.

And if the ‘Predator’ didn’t like it?

Well, it could go to Hell. The thing wanted Humanity as its thralls? Well, it got Humanity, with all the baggage attached. One part of which was how they couldn’t give any less of a shit about what you thought with certain things. The ‘Predator’ could all but own them, but they would still play by their own rules in some regards, and no amount of coercing would stop them. The ‘Predator’  knew this, and even the monstrosity had to relent here and there.

What name did they give this space between spaces, this cell that was a monster? Oh, a fitting one, considering what the ‘Predator’ had done to them all.

The name of this new ‘world’ was fitting, both for what it was, that of a huge space within spaces, and the debauchery the monster itself had filled Humanity with. Beyond duty, violence and danger, this was a titanic playground of sex and desire, where morality held little power.

So, with that said, the name with which Humanity as a whole christened their new home fit as close to perfectly as it could:

Spatium Sperma.
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